סוּף
Suph
BDB lists 2 entries for ‘Suph’ fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H5489 appears — 1 distinct verse across 1 book. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Deuteronomy 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Hebrew name סוף centers on the idea of “Suph.” The Hebrew Bible uses it only 1 verse. The word gravitates to Deuteronomy (100%). A true hapax — its single appearance is Deuteronomy 1:1. Dig into 1-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5489 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 1
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 1 distinct verse.
- 1 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 1 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #6,101
- by frequency
- Rank #6,101 (rank 6,101 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 1 occurrence in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Deuteronomy 1 verse 100%
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 1 distinct verse.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 100%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 3 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Red 1×
- American Standard Version†: Suph 1×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Suph 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Suph 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5489 across 1† tagged occurrence — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H5489 across 1† tagged occurrence — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H5489 across 1† tagged occurrence — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5489 across 1† tagged occurrence — most commonly:
Senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each.
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 6 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
סוף I come to an end, cease (𝔗 סוּף, Syriac (ܣܘܦ) ܣܳܦ, cease, stop (often), 𝔗 סוֹפָא, Syriac ܣܽܘܦܳܐ, NH סוֹף end)
Qal
- Pf. 3 pl. סָ֫פוּ ψ 73:19, וְסָפ֫וּ consec. Am 3:15; Impf. 3 ms. יָסוּף Est 9:28; 3 mpl. יָסֻ֫פוּ Is 66:17;—come to an end Am 3:15 Is 66:17 ψ 73:19 (+ תַּמּוּ), וְזִכְרָם לֹא־יָסוּף מִזַּרְעָם Est 9:28. e.g. Psalms 73:19
Hiphil
- make an end of, only (if text correct) Impf. 1 s. (+ Inf. abs. אָסֹף, chosen for assonance, v. אסף), cohort. = juss. in form, אָסֹף אָסֵף Zp 1:2, אָסֵף v 3, 3, אָסֹף אֲסִיפֵם Je 8:13 (on these forms v. Gf Bö§ 988, 1 Köi. 445, 446); but read perhaps, for אָסֵף, אֶאֱסֹף, We Buhl Lex 13, or אֹסֵף, Ges§§ 72 aa, 113 w n. 3 Now Zp 1:2, and in Je אָסֹף אֹסְפֵם Gesl.c. (against Gie v. Hi). e.g. Zephaniah 1:2
סוף II Jon 2
- 1. rushes, in Nile Ex 2:3, 5 (E); קָנֶהוָסוּף Is 19:6 (of Egypt); Jon 2:6. e.g. Exodus 2:3
- 2. usually in combin. יַם־סוּף prob. = sea of rushes or reeds (> sea of (city) Suph), which Gk. incl. in wider name θάλασσα ἐρυθρά, Red Sea (cf. Di Ex 13:18 and especially WMMAs. u. Eur. 42 f., who expl. as name orig. given to upper end of Gulf of Suez, extending into Bitter Lakes, shallow and marshy, whence reeds (prob. also reddish colour));—name applied only to arms of Red Sea; most often e.g. Exodus 13:18
- a. to Gulf of Suez Ex 10:19 Jos 2:10 (both J), Ex 13:18; 15:4, 22; 23:31 (all E), Dt 11:4 Jos 4:23; 24:6 (D), Nu 33:10, 11 (P), elsewhere late Ne 9:9 ψ 106:7, 9, 22; 136:13, 15. e.g. Exodus 10:19
- b. sometimes to Gulf of Akaba 1 K 9:26, and דֶּרֶךְ יַם־סוּף Nu 21:4 (E), prob. also 14:25 (E), Dt 1:40; 2:1; perhaps Ju 11:16 Je 49:21; poss. read מִיַּם־סוּף for מוֹל ס׳ Dt 1:1 (v. infr.). e.g. 1 Kings 9:26
סוף III loc. (si vera l.) named in defining loc. of Deut. law-giving Dt 1
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. vb. come to an end, cease (𝔗 סוּף, Syriac (ܣܘܦ) ܣܳܦ, cease, stop (often), 𝔗 סוֹפָא, Syriac ܣܽܘܦܳܐ, NH סוֹף end);—
II. n.m. Jon 2:6 reeds, rushes (coll.) (prob. loan-word from Egyptian ṭwfi, reeds, SteindorffBASi. 603 ErmanZMG xivi (1892), 122; Semitic according to WMMAs. u. Eur. 101);—
III. n.pr.loc. (si vera l.) named in defining loc. of Deut. law-giving Dt 1:1 (מוֹל סוּף, where מוֹל by dissimil. for מוּל); but read perhaps מִיַּם סוּף (𝔊 πλησίον τῆς ἐρυθρᾶς, 𝔊L + θαλάσσης, 𝔙 contra mare rubrum), v. i. סוּף. v. CheEB Red Sea.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from סוף (çûwph) (H5488) — reed.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
סוּף I
- v. סוּף II) reed, bulrush.—ים ס׳ the sea of Suf (Red Sea). Sot. 12ᵃ sq. (ref. to בסוף, Ex. II, 3) ר"א אומר ים ס׳ וכ׳ R. E. says, that means the sea; R. S. says, it means ăgam (v. אֲגַם II, 2); Ex. R. s. 1. Ex. R. s. 22 קריעת ים ס׳ the splitting of the Red Sea (for the passage of the Israelites); Y. Ber. I, 3ᵈ bot.; a. fr. e.g. Exodus 2:3
סוּף
- only with יַם, יַמָּא. Targ. Ex. XIII, 18. Targ. Jon. II, 6; a. fr.
סוּף II
- (b. h.) to cut; to be cut off; to end. Tanḥ. B’resh. 12 וסָפָה הטובים וכ׳ and destroys the good and the bad.
- to cut, diminish; to exterminate (corresp. to b. h. כִּלָּה). Gen. R. s. 100 מי יכול לסַיֵּיף וכ׳ who can annihilate the dust?… the beasts of the field? &c. Gen. R. s. 42 מה אתה הולך ומְסַיֵּיף את עצמך וכ׳ Var. in Yalk. ib. 73 for מסרס (ed. מסיים) why wilt thou reduce (weaken) thyself among thy enemies? (v.Tanḥ. Tanḥ. Vayera 3).—Part. pass. מְסוּיָּיף (denom. of סוֹף); f. pl. מְסוּיָּיפוֹת left to the end, ripening late; opp. בַּכִּיר, בִּכּוּרָה. Y. Dem. I, beg. 21ᶜ הבכירות והמס׳ (Tosef. ib. I, 3 הבכורות והסייפות). Y. Shebi. IV, end, 35ᶜ; a. fr.
- to be late in ripening, to be left on the tree beyond cutting time. Y. Dem. I, beg., 21ᶜ נִסְתַּיְּיפוּ וכ׳, v. סוֹף a. סוֹפֶת.
סוּף ²
- 1. to finish; to destroy. Targ. Y. II, Num. XXXIII, 52 תְּסוּפוּן (Y. I תִּסְפּוּן a. תְּסַיְּיפוּן). Targ. Lam. IV, 11; a. e.
- 2. to cease. Targ. Is. XIV, 4. Targ. Lev. XXVI, 20. Targ. Prov. II, 22; a. fr.—Part. סָיֵיף. Ib. XI, 31; a. e.—Koh. R. to X, 15 מביני … סָפַת וכ׳ between the two (disputing) that unfortunate woman (Jephthah’s daughter) perished; Lev. R. s. 37, end בין דין לדין ספת וכ׳ (some ed. נספת, corr. acc.).
- to finish; to consume, ruin. Targ. Y. Gen. XLIV, 12 Ar. (ed. פסק). Targ. Y. Lev. XIX, 9. Ib. XXVI, 16; a. e.—Part. pass. מְסַיַּיף. Targ. I Kings XIV, 10.—Yalk. Gen. 133 סַיְּיפַת, v. סוּב.
- same. Targ. O. Deut. XXXII, 22 (ed. Berl. אַסֵּ׳; ed. Vien. אָסֵ׳; h. text אכלה). Ib. 23 (h. text אספה). Targ. Zeph. I, 3; a. fr.
סוֹף
- preced.)
- 1. end. Yeb. XVI, 4 (121ᵃ) מים … שאין להם ס׳ waters without end (the shores of which you cannot see from all sides). Ned. 62ᵃ וס׳ הכבוד לבא and honor will finally come of itself. Gen. R. s. 71, beg. (ref. to Ps. LXIX, 34) לא ראשו … סוֹפוֹ ולא סופו ראשו the first clause of this verse does not correspond (in syntactical construction) to its final clause &c. Sifra K’dosh. ch. III, Par. 2 אם גנבת סוֹפְךָ לכחש וכ׳ if thou stealest, thou wilt finally deny &c. Kidd. 31ᵃ מס׳ דברך, v. נָכַר. Meg. 7ᵃ בתחלה קבעוה בשושן וְלִבְסוֹף וכ׳ at first they established it (the festival of Purim) in Shushan, and then for the whole (Jewish) world; a. v. fr.—לא ס׳ דבר אלא … this is not the end of it …, but. Gen. R. s. 38 (ref. to Prov. XVII, 13) לא ס׳ ד׳ משיב וכ׳ after all, not only he who requites evil for good, but even he who requites evil for evil &c. Y. Shebi. III, end, 34ᵈ; a. fr. e.g. Psalms 69:34
- 2. remnant, esp. pl. סוֹפִין fruit remaining on the tree after harvest time, late fruit. Y. Yeb. XII, 12ᵈ bot. קידש בגופו של ס׳ (prob. to be read בנוֹפוֹ) if one betrothed a woman, giving as a consideration a branch of a tree of his containing remainders (mostly worthless). Pes. 6ᵇ סוֹפֵי … ומשמר וכ׳ if there are in a man’s field late figs, but he watches his field for the sake of the grapes; v. סוֹפֶת.—[Tosef. Kel. B. Mets. II, 8 סופין ed. Zolk., read: סוֹבִין.]
סוֹף ²
- Targ. Job XXVIII, 3; a. fr.—Y. Snh. X, 29ᵃ bot. יהא סוֹפֵיה וכ׳, v. חֲנַק. Ab. Zar. 41ᵃ מעיקרא … ולבס׳ וכ׳ at first …, but finally &c.; a. fr.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Suph). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
(Deut. 1:1, R.V.; marg., "some ancient versions have the Red Sea," as in the A.V.). Some identify it with Suphah (Num. 21:14, marg., A.V.) as probably the name of a place. Others identify it with es-Sufah = Maaleh-acrabbim (Josh. 15:3), and others again with Zuph (1 Sam. 9:5). It is most probable, however, that, in accordance with the ancient versions, this word is to be regarded as simply an abbreviation of Yam-suph, i.e., the "Red Sea."
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 1 verse that also exists in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 1 Hebrew verse it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
