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.
13 verses where H5656 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Numbers. 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.
Numbers
- Numbers 4:23 עֲבֹדָ֖ה n c fs from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shall you number them; all who enter in to wait on the service, to do the work in the Tent of Meeting.
- Numbers 4:35 לַ/עֲבֹדָ֖ה prep + n c fs from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the service, for work in the Tent of Meeting.
- Numbers 4:39 לַ/עֲבֹדָ֖ה prep + n c fs from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the service, for work in the Tent of Meeting,
- Numbers 4:43 לַ/עֲבֹדָ֖ה prep + n c fs from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered into the service, for work in the Tent of Meeting,
- Numbers 4:47 עֲבֹדַ֧ת עֲבֹדָ֛ה וַ/עֲבֹדַ֥ת n c fs cs n c fs conj + n c fs cs from thirty years old and upward even to fifty years old, everyone who entered in to do the work of service, and the work of bearing burdens in the Tent of Meeting,
- Numbers 8:25 הָ/עֲבֹדָ֑ה ptcl def.art + n c fs and from the age of fifty years they shall cease waiting on the work, and shall serve no more,
- Numbers 8:26 וַ/עֲבֹדָ֖ה conj + n c fs but shall minister with their brothers in the Tent of Meeting, to keep the charge, and shall do no service. Thus shall you do to the Levites concerning their duties."
- Numbers 28:18 עֲבֹדָ֖ה n c fs In the first day shall be a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work;
- Numbers 28:25 עֲבֹדָ֖ה n c fs On the seventh day you shall have a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work.
- Numbers 28:26 עֲבֹדָ֖ה n c fs Also in the day of the first fruits, when you offer a new meal-offering to Yahweh in your [feast of] weeks, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work;
- Numbers 29:1 עֲבֹדָ֖ה n c fs In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work: it is a day of blowing of trumpets to you.
- Numbers 29:12 עֲבֹדָ֖ה n c fs On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no servile work, and you shall keep a feast to Yahweh seven days:
- Numbers 29:35 עֲבֹדָ֖ה n c fs On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly: you shall do no servile work;
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.
