עֲבֹדָה
service
‘service’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Construct-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
11 verses where H5656 appears in the Construct state in the Book of 2 Chronicles. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
2 Chronicles
- 2 Chronicles 8:14 עֲבֹדָתָ֗/ם n c fs cs + sfx pers 3mp He appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the divisions of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their offices, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required; the doorkeepers also by their divisions at every gate: for so had David the man of God commanded.
- 2 Chronicles 10:4 מֵ/עֲבֹדַ֨ת prep + n c fs cs Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make you the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.
- 2 Chronicles 12:8 עֲב֣וֹדָתִ֔/י וַ/עֲבוֹדַ֖ת n c fs cs + sfx pers 1cs conj + n c fs cs Nevertheless they shall be his servants, that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.
- 2 Chronicles 24:12 עֲבוֹדַ֣ת n c fs cs The king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of Yahweh; and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of Yahweh, and also such as worked iron and brass to repair the house of Yahweh.
- 2 Chronicles 29:35 עֲבוֹדַ֥ת n c fs cs Also the burnt offerings were in abundance, with the fat of the peace-offerings, and with the drink-offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of Yahweh was set in order.
- 2 Chronicles 31:2 עֲבֹדָת֗/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms Hezekiah appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites after their divisions, every man according to his service, both the priests and the Levites, for burnt offerings and for peace-offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of Yahweh.
- 2 Chronicles 31:16 לַ/עֲב֣וֹדָתָ֔/ם prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 3mp besides those who were reckoned by genealogy of males, from three years old and upward, even everyone who entered into the house of Yahweh, as the duty of every day required, for their service in their offices according to their divisions;
- 2 Chronicles 31:21 בַּ/עֲבוֹדַ֣ת prep + n c fs cs In every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.
- 2 Chronicles 35:2 לַ/עֲבוֹדַ֖ת prep + n c fs cs He set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Yahweh.
- 2 Chronicles 35:15 עֲבֹֽדָתָ֔/ם n c fs cs + sfx pers 3mp The singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters were at every gate: they didn't need to depart from their service; for their brothers the Levites prepared for them.
- 2 Chronicles 35:16 עֲבוֹדַ֨ת n c fs cs So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt-offerings on the altar of Yahweh, according to the commandment of king Josiah.
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 noun עבדה centers on the idea of “service.” The lexicon spreads it across several senses; see its full sense range. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 125 verses — common. Numbers dominates its distribution — 44 of 125 verses. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 29:27. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5656 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 →
- 125
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 125 distinct verses.
- 15 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 15 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #309
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 309 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 125 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Numbers 44 verses 35%
- 1 Chronicles 23 verses 18%
- Exodus 20 verses 16%
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 125 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 74 verses · 59%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 44 verses · 35%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 7 verses · 6%
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).
- King James Version: Service 67×, Servile 11×, Work 7×
- American Standard Version: Service 64×, Servile 11×, Work 9×
- Berean Standard Bible: Service 51×, Work 23×, Labor 7×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Service 60×, Service of 46×, Labor 14×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5656 across 141 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 25 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H5656 across 140 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 26 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H5656 across 127 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 29 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 18 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5656 across 152 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
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 4 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. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. †labour, work, ψ 10423; in the field Ex 1:14; 1 Ch 27:26, prob. Ne 10:38 (עָרֵי ע׳), ψ 10414 (עֵשֶׂב לע׳); in fine linen 1 Ch 4:21; in erection of tabernacle Ex 35:24; 36:1, 3, 5; 39:42 (P); in repairing temple 2 Ch 34:13(×2); כל מלאכת עבדה לא תעשׂוּ ye shall do no laborious work Lv 23:7, 8, 21, 25, 35, 36; Nu 28:18, 25, 26; 29:1, 12, 35 (P); fig. of man, ע׳ הַצְּדָקָה Is 32:17 (‖ מַעֲשֵׂה הַצּ׳); of God’s work of judgment Is 28:21(×2). e.g. Psalms 104:23
- 2. labour of servant or slave: of Jacob for Laban Gn 29:27; 30:26 (JE); ע׳ עֶבֶד of bondservant Lv 25:39 (P); of the Nethinim Ezr 8:20; service of things, vessels of tabernacle and temple Nu 4:26, 32 (P), 1 Ch 9:28; 28:14(×2), 15. e.g. Genesis 29:27
- 3. labour, service of captives or subjects: of Israel in Egypt Ex 1:14; 2:23(×2) (P), 5:11 (E), 6:6 (P); כבד(ה) הע׳ 5:9 (E), Ne 5:18; ע׳ קשׁה Ex 1:14; 6:9 (P), Dt 26:6; 1 K 12:4 = 2 Ch 10:4; Is 14:3; מֵרֹב ע׳ La 1:3; ע׳ ממלכוֹת 2 Ch 12:8; ע׳ המלך 1 Ch 26:30; ע׳ אדניהם Ne 3:5; military service Ez 29:18(×2). e.g. Exodus 1:14
- 4. service of God, in P Chr Ez: by people Jos 22:27 (P) 2 Ch 12:8, feast of passover Ex 12:25, 26; 2 Ch 35:10, 16, unleavened bread Ex 13:5; Levites and priests Nu 4:19, 49; 8:11; 1 Ch 24:3, 19; 2 Ch 8:14; 31:16; ע׳ מתנה Nu 18:7; Levites Ex 38:21; Nu 4:24, 27(×2), 28, 33, 47(×2); 7:7, 8; 8:26; 18:21; 1 Ch 6:17; 2 Ch 31:2; c. בְּאֹהֶל מוֹעֵד v 4, 23, 31, 33, 35, 39, 43; 8:19, 22; 18:31; אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד Ex 30:16; Nu 4:30; 7:5; 8:24; 18:4, 6, 21, 23, cf. Ex 35:21; Nu 7:5; (ה)מִשְׁכָּן Ex 39:32, 40; Nu 3:7, 8; 16:9; 1 Ch 6:33, cf. Ex 27:19; Nu 3:36; 1 Ch 23:26; ע׳ הַקֹּדֶשׁ Nu 7:9, cf. 3:31; of its court v 26; more specif. ע׳ משׂא 4:47; צבא הע׳ 8:25; ע׳ בית י׳ (ה)אלהים 1 Ch 23:24, 28, 32; 25:6; 28:13(×2), 21(×2); 29:7; 2 Ch 29:35; 31:21; 35:2; Ne 10:33; מלאכת ע׳ בית האלהים 1 Ch 9:13; 28:20; 2 Ch 24:12; מעשׂה ע׳ 1 Ch 23:28; its service Ez 44:14; 1 Ch 9:19; specif. service of Levit. singers 25:1(×2), and doorkeepers 26:8; 2 Ch 35:15. e.g. Joshua 22:27
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
and (Chr) עֲבוֹדָה 145 n.f. labour, service (on format. v. LagBN 179 BaNB 61);—ע׳ Ex 1:14 + 41 times; cstr. עֲבֹדַת 3016 + 43 times; sf. עֲבֹדָתִי Gn 30:26 + 33 times sfs.; in Chr עֲבוֹדָה 1 Ch 28:14 + 7 times; cstr. עֲבוֹדַת 633 + 13 times; sf. עֲבוֹדָתִי 2 Ch 12:8; עֲבוֹדָתָם 1 Ch 6:17; 2 Ch 31:16;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from עבד (ʻâbad) (H5647) — to serve.
Forms in the corpus
The 79 distinct written forms H5656 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 19 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5656, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- מעבד maʻbâd H4566 work
- עבד ʻăbad H5648 to make
- עבד ʻebed H5650 servant
- עבד ʻăbâd H5652 work
- עבדה ʻăbuddâh H5657 service
- עבדות ʻabdûwth H5659 bondage
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
- עבדא ʻAbdâʼ H5653 Abda
- עבד אדום ʻÔbêd ʼĔdôwm H5654 Obed-edom
- עבדאל ʻAbdᵉʼêl H5655 Abdeel
- עבדון ʻAbdôwn H5658 Abdon
- עבדי ʻAbdîy H5660 Abdi
- עבדיה ʻÔbadyâh H5662 Obadiah
- עובד ʻÔwbêd H5744 Obed
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 15 — not the complete family. 7 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 118 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 125 Hebrew verses 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
- Genesis 29:27
- Exodus 1:14
- Leviticus 23:7
- Numbers 3:7
- Deuteronomy 26:6
- Joshua 22:27
- 1 Kings 12:4
- 1 Chronicles 4:21
- 2 Chronicles 8:14
- Ezra 8:20
- Psalms 104:14
- Isaiah 14:3
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.
