עֵדָה
congregation
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-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
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
26 verses where H5712 appears in the Construct 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 1:2 עֲדַ֣ת n c fs cs "Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, every male, one by one;
- Numbers 1:53 עֲדַ֖ת n c fs cs But the Levites shall encamp around the Tabernacle of the Testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be responsible for the Tabernacle of the Testimony."
- Numbers 8:9 עֲדַ֖ת n c fs cs You shall present the Levites before the Tent of Meeting. You shall assemble the whole congregation of the children of Israel.
- Numbers 8:20 עֲדַ֥ת n c fs cs Thus did Moses, and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the Levites. According to all that Yahweh commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so the children of Israel did to them.
- Numbers 13:26 עֲדַ֧ת הָ֣/עֵדָ֔ה n c fs cs ptcl def.art + n c fs They went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word to them, and to all the congregation, and shown them the fruit of the land.
- Numbers 14:5 עֲדַ֖ת n c fs cs Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.
- Numbers 14:7 עֲדַ֥ת n c fs cs and they spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceeding good land.
- Numbers 15:25 עֲדַ֛ת n c fs cs The priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the children of Israel, and they shall be forgiven; for it was an error, and they have brought their offering, an offering made by fire to Yahweh, and their sin-offering before Yahweh, for their error:
- Numbers 15:26 עֲדַת֙ n c fs cs and all the congregation of the children of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them; for in respect of all the people it was done unwittingly.
- Numbers 16:5 עֲדָת/וֹ֮ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms and he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, In the morning Yahweh will show who are his, and who is holy, and will cause him to come near to him: even him whom he shall choose will he cause to come near to him.
- Numbers 16:6 עֲדָתֽ/וֹ n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms This do: take you censers, Korah, and all his company;
- Numbers 16:9 מֵ/עֲדַ֣ת הָ/עֵדָ֖ה prep + n c fs cs ptcl def.art + n c fs [seems it but] a small thing to you, that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the service of the tent of Yahweh, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them;
- Numbers 16:11 עֲדָ֣תְ/ךָ֔ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Therefore you and all your company are gathered together against Yahweh: and Aaron, what is he who you murmur against him?
- Numbers 16:16 עֲדָ֣תְ/ךָ֔ n c fs cs + sfx pers 2ms Moses said to Korah, You and all your company go before Yahweh, you, and they, and Aaron, tomorrow:
- Numbers 16:40 וְ/כַ֣/עֲדָת֔/וֹ conj + prep + n c fs cs + sfx pers 3ms to be a memorial to the children of Israel, to the end that no stranger, who isn't of the seed of Aaron, comes near to burn incense before Yahweh; that he not be as Korah, and as his company: as Yahweh spoke to him by Moses.
- Numbers 16:41 עֲדַ֤ת n c fs cs But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, You have killed the people of Yahweh.
- Numbers 19:9 לַ/עֲדַ֨ת prep + n c fs cs A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water for impurity: it is a sin-offering.
- Numbers 25:6 עֲדַ֣ת n c fs cs Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.
- Numbers 26:2 עֲדַ֣ת n c fs cs Take the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers' houses, all who are able to go forth to war in Israel.
- Numbers 26:9 הָ/עֵדָ֗ה בַּ/עֲדַת ptcl def.art + n c fs prep + n c fs cs The sons of Eliab: Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. These are that Dathan and Abiram, who were called of the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against Yahweh,
- Numbers 27:3 הָ/עֵדָ֗ה בַּ/עֲדַת ptcl def.art + n c fs prep + n c fs cs Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not among the company of those who gathered themselves together against Yahweh in the company of Korah: but he died in his own sin; and he had no sons.
- Numbers 27:17 עֲדַ֣ת n c fs cs who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd.
- Numbers 27:20 עֲדַ֖ת n c fs cs You shall put of your honor on him, that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey.
- Numbers 31:12 עֲדַ֣ת n c fs cs They brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the congregation of the children of Israel, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan at Jericho.
- Numbers 31:16 בַּ/עֲדַ֥ת prep + n c fs cs Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.
- Numbers 32:4 עֲדַ֣ת n c fs cs the land which Yahweh struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle; and your servants have cattle.
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.
“congregation” is the headline sense of the Hebrew noun עדה (ʻêdâh). More than half of its appearances fall in Numbers. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 140 verses — common. Its earliest occurrence is Exodus 12:3. One archaism survives in the King James Version — “whole congregation” — where modern Bibles read “congregation”; see the renderings breakdown. See the sense tree, 140-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5712 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 →
- 140
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 140 distinct verses.
- 12 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 12 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #301
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 301 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 140 occurrences in the concordance →
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 140 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 102 verses · 73%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 24 verses · 17%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 14 verses · 10%
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†: Congregation 58×, All the congregation 42×, Whole congregation 12×
- American Standard Version†: Congregation 56×, All the congregation 41×, Whole congregation 11×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Congregation 111×, Assembly 15×, Followers 8×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Congregation 93×, Congregation of 42×, The 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5712 across 149† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 23 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 H5712 across 145† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 22 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 H5712 across 145† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 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 4 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5712 across 153† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 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 3 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.
עדה I congregation (proposes company assembled together by appointment, or acting concertedly)
- 1. עֲדַת־אֵל ψ 82:1 congregation of Ēl, of company of angels (‖ בקרב אלהים); ע׳ לְאֻמִּים 7:8 congregation of peoples; ע׳ צַדִּיקִים 1:5 congregation of the righteous; ‖ סוֹד יְשָׁרִים 111:1; ‖ קהל Pr 5:14; כָּל־עֲדָתִי Jb 16:7 (of Job’s circle of dependents); in a bad sense, ע׳ מְרֵעִים company of evil doers ψ 22:17; ע׳ עריצים 86:14; ע׳ חנף Jb 15:34; ע׳ קֹרַח company of Korah Nu 26:9; 27:3 (P), so עֲדָתוֹ, עֲדָֽתְךָ 16:5, 6, 11, 16; 17:5 (P), and הָעֵדָה 26:10; 27:3 (P); ע׳ אֲבִירָם ψ 106:17, cf. v 18. e.g. Psalms 82:1
- 2. pack of animals ע׳ אַבִּירִים ψ 68:31 (fig. of nobles); ע׳ דְּבֹרִים Ju 14:8 a swarm of bees. e.g. Psalms 68:31
- 3. elsewhere of Israel Ho 7:12 עֲדָתָם i.e. the whole assemblage of them; 1 K 8:5 (= 2 Ch 5:6) כל עדת ישׂ׳ of those gathered to Sol.; 12:20 העדה of assembly at Shechem; Je 6:18 (text very dub.); עֲדָתוֹ 30:20 of restored people; עֲדָֽתְךָ ψ 74:2 (‖ שׁכט נחלתך); elsewhere in P, except possibly Nu 20:11 (R), in technical sense, of the company of Israel of the Exodus, the congregation (115 times), especially in the phrases †ע׳ יהוה Nu 27:17; 31:16 Jos 22:16, 17; †ע׳ ישׂראל Ex 12:3, 6, 19, 47 Lv 4:13 Nu 16:9; 32:4 Jos 22:18, 20; †ע׳ בני ישׂראל Ex 16:1, 2, 9, 10; 17:1; 35:1, 4, 20 Lv 16:5; 19:2 (H), Nu 1:2, 53; 8:9, 20; 13:26; 14:5, 7; 15:25, 26; 17:6; 19:9; 25:6; 26:2; 27:20; 31:12 Jos 18:1; 22:12; הָעֵדָה Lv 8:4 + 29 times (cf. Ju 20:1; 21:10); כל־הע׳ Lv 8:3 + 33 times (cf. Ju 21:13); †נְשִׂיאֵי (ה)ע׳ princes of the congregation Ex 16:22; Nu 4:34; 16:2; 31:13; 32:2; Jos 9:15, 18; 22:30; כָּל־הַנְּשִׂאִים בָּע׳ Ex 34:31; זִקְנֵי הע׳ elders of the congregation Lv 4:15 (cf. Ju 21:16); ראשׁי אבות הע׳ Nu 31:26. ii & iii עֵדָה v. עוד. e.g. Hosea 7:12
עדה II testimony, witness, of things (only E)
עדה III only pl. MT testimonies (always of laws as divine testimonies or solemn charges)
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. n.f. congregation (proposes company assembled together by appointment, or acting concertedly)—ע׳ Nu 16:2 + 85 times; cstr. עֲדַת Ex 12:3 + 52 times; sf. עֲדָתִי Jb 16:7 + 9 times sfs.;—
IV. n.f. testimony, witness, of things (only E);—Gn 21:30; 31:52; Jos 24:27(×2) (J uses עֵד for feminine things).—i. עֵדָה v. יעד.
V. n.f. only pl. MT testimonies (always of laws as divine testimonies or solemn charges);—pl. abs. עֵדֹת Dt 4:45; 6:20; sf. (of י׳), עֵדֹתִי ψ 132:12 (Ges§ 91 n.), עֵדֹתָיו Dt 6:17 ψ 25:10; 99:7; 119:2, עֵדוֹתָיו 78:56; עֵדֹתֶיךָ 93:5; 119:22, 24, 46, 59, 79, 95, 119, 125, 138, 146, 152, 167, 168 (MT pointing artificial, der. prob. from עֵדוּת, reading עֵדֻת for עֵדֹת, or regarding עֵדֹת as contr. from עֵדְוֹת, pl. of עֵדוּת [Sta§ 320 b SS Buhl]; v. also Dr Dt 4:45; Dt 4:45; 6:17, 20 are redactional).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from עד (ʻêd) (H5707) — witness.
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.
עֵדָה I
- [appointed meeting,] assembly, congregation; court; prayer meeting. Tosef. Snh. XII, 3 (ref. to Ex. XXI, 18) מה אגרוף הידוע לע׳ ילעדים וכ׳ as the fist (of the slayer) is ascertained before court and witnesses, so must the stone (weapon) be &c.; B. Kam. 90ᵇ; ib. 91ᵃ. Snh. I, 6 (ref. to Num. XXXV, 24, sq.) ע׳ שופטת וע׳ מצלת there must be a possibility of an incriminating assembly (of ten persons), and of a saving assembly, which makes twenty persons; ומנין לע׳ שהיא וכ׳ and where do we find an intimation that an ‘edah consists of ten?; Y. Ber. IV, 11ᶜ top; a. fr.—Y. Maas. Sh. II, end, 53ᵈ; Koh. R. to IX, 9; Yalk. ib. 989 ע׳ קדושה the holy brotherhood. e.g. Exodus 21:18
*עֵדָה II
- = עֵדוּת, testimony. Tosef. Bekh. III, 8 שכר עֵדָתוֹ ed. Zuck. (oth. ed. עדותו) pay for his testimony.—Pl. עֵדוֹת. Bekh. IV, 6 (29ᵃ) עֵדוֹתָיו בטילין masc. (Var. in Mish. ed. עדותו בטילה) his testimonies are void; (Kidd. 58ᵇ עדותו בטילה).
עדי
- [to turn, pass; cmp. סוּר and חוּל,] to pass by; to pass away, v. next w.
- to be passed, be caught in passing. Lev. R. s. 26 (ref. to I Sam. XXIV, 11, a. XXVI, 14) בכנף אמרת בסירה ה׳ … בסירה הוּעֲדוּ as to the skirt (of Saul’s cloak) thou saidst, it was caught in a bush: have the spear and the cruise also been caught in the bush?; Num. R. s. 19 הוּעֲדַת (read the second time הועדו); Midr. Till. to Ps. VII; Yalk. Sam. 133, a. e.; (Y. Peah I, 16ᵃ bot.; Y. Sot. I, 17ᵇ הוערת, הוערו, הערת, v. עָרָה). e.g. 1 Samuel 24:11
עדי ²
- to strip.
- same, to take off. Lam. R. introd. (R. Ḥan. 1) יום … ה׳ מהן וכ׳ on the day Nebuchadnezzar came in conflict with Israel, he deprived them of two garments, the garment of priesthood and the garment of royalty.
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.
Forms in the corpus
The 47 distinct written forms H5712 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5712, 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
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 132 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 140 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
- Exodus 12:3
- Leviticus 4:13
- Numbers 1:2
- Joshua 9:15
- Judges 14:8
- 1 Kings 8:5
- 2 Chronicles 5:6
- Job 15:34
- Psalms 1:5
- Proverbs 5:14
- Jeremiah 6:18
- Hosea 7:12
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.
