Want to remove ads? Support Godless Engineer

עִיר

city

‘city’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓

H5892 Strong's Hebrew
ʻîyr Transliteration
/eer/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 1,095 appearances

Compare with another word →

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 עיר centers on the idea of “city.” Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 4:17. It turns up in 936 verses across 37 books, one of the most common footprint. The lexicon spreads it across several senses; see its full sense range. It shares a root with עור, עיר and עיר. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
Ai
Modern gloss
city
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H5892 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 →

936
distinct verses
The word appears in 936 distinct verses.
37 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 37 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 4:17
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 4:17.
Zechariah 14:2
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 14:2.
#35
by frequency
Top 50 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 35 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 936 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 143 · 15%
  • Historical 497 · 53%
  • Wisdom 33 · 4%
  • Prophets 263 · 28%

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 936 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 602 verses · 64%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 191 verses · 20%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 143 verses · 15%

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 4 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: City 554×, Cities 316×, All the cities 34×
  • American Standard Version: City 504×, Cities 294×, All the cities 32×
  • Berean Standard Bible: City 567×, Cities 332×, Towns 20×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: City 486×, Cities 246×, Cities of 115×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H5892 across 1,081 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “City” 554×
  • “Cities” 316×
  • “All the cities” 34×
  • “Every city” 9×
  • “Against the city” 8×
  • “Against this city” 6×
  • “Be a city” 5×
  • “All the city” 4×
  • “All their cities” 4×
  • “Town” 4×
  • “Were in the cities” 4×
  • “Against all the cities” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 100 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 8 further occurrences.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H5892 across 1,079 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “City” 504×
  • “Cities” 294×
  • “All the cities” 32×
  • “Every city” 10×
  • “Against the city” 7×
  • “Against this city” 5×
  • “- cities” 4×
  • “All their cities” 4×
  • “Name of his city” 4×
  • “Were in the cities” 4×
  • “Against all the cities” 3×
  • “Against the cities” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 157 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 H5892 across 1,034 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “City” 567×
  • “Cities” 332×
  • “Towns” 20×
  • “Town” 9×
  • “Villages” 7×
  • “Hometown” 5×
  • “Along with the city” 3×
  • “It” 3×
  • “Own city” 3×
  • “Through the city” 3×
  • “Against the city” 2×
  • “Around the city” 2×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 56 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 58 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H5892 across 1,092 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “City” 486×
  • “Cities” 246×
  • “Cities of” 115×
  • “City of” 98×
  • “The” 26×
  • “And” 14×
  • “In” 8×
  • “A” 7×
  • “Town” 7×
  • “Against” 4×
  • “For” 4×
  • “Were” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 48 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


12 senses and sub-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 12 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.

עיר I [m.] agitation

עיר II

  • 1. city, town, abode of men Gn 4:17 (J) and often; גְּדֹלָה 10:12 (J), +, or קְטַנָּה Ec 9:14 (cf. Gn 19:20); especially e.g. Genesis 4:17
    • a. fortified: עָרִים בְּצֻרוֹת 2 S 20:6 +, etc., v. בָּצַר, מִבְצָר; עִיר מִבְצַר־צֹר Jos 19:29 (P) fortified city (of) Tyre, ע׳ מָצוֹר ψ 31:22 +, etc., v. מָצוֹר, מְצוּרָה sub צוּר (Mi 7:12 v. מָצוֹר p. 596 a); ע׳ עָז־לָנוּ Is 26:1, עָרֵי מָעוּזּוֹ 17:9; ע׳ דְּלָתַים וּבְרִיחַ 1 S 23:7; ע׳ חוֹמָה Lv 25:29, cf. v 30 (P), 1 K 4:13; on Ho 10:14 v. i. עַם 2 b (1 S 9:14 read הַשַּׁעַר 𝔊 We Dr al.). e.g. 2 Samuel 20:6
    • b. opp. כֹּפֶר הַפְּרָוִי 1 S 6:18, עָרֵי הַפּ׳ Dt 3:5, ע׳ הַפְּרָזוֹת Est 9:19; disting. from dependencies חֲצֵרִים Jos 13:23 + often P e.g. 1 Samuel 6:18
    • c. עָרֶיהָ are dependent towns Jos 13:17 (P), Je 19:15. e.g. Joshua 13:17
    • d. עָרֵי הַמַּמְלָכָה Jos 10:2 (JE) royal cities (i.e. with a king, cf. Tel Am. al šarri;), so sg. 1 S 27:5, opp. עָרֵי הַשָּׂדֶה v 5 rural towns; ע׳ הַמְּלוּכָה 2 S 12:26 (but read ע׳ הַמַּיִם We Bu Kit Löhr HPS, v. 2 infr.). e.g. Joshua 10:2
    • e. עָרֵי מִסְכְּנוֹת Ex 1:11 storage-cities, so 1 K 9:19 = 2 Ch 8:6; 2 Ch 8:4; 17:12; for מ׳ ע׳ נַפְתָּלִי 16:4 read prob. כִּנְרוֹת עַל־וגו׳ (as 1 K 15:20; Be Kit Buhl); cf. ע׳ הָרֶכֶב 1 K 9:19; 10:26 = 2 Ch 8:6; 9:25; 2 Ch 1:14; ע׳ הַפָּרָשִׁים 1 K 9:19 = 2 Ch 8:6. e.g. Exodus 1:11
    • f. ע׳ (הַ)מִקְלָט (P) asylum-cities Nu 35:11, 13, 14; Jos 20:2, cf. Nu 35:25, 26, 27, 28, 32, ע׳ לְמִקְלָט v 12; ע׳ מִקְלַט הָרֹצֵחַ Jos 21:13 + 4 times 21. e.g. Numbers 35:11
    • g. ע׳ (הָ)אֱלֹהִים = Jerus.: ψ 46:5; 87:3, cf. 48:2, 9; ע׳ י׳ Is 60:14 ψ 101:8; ע׳ י׳ צְבָאוֹת 48:9. e.g. Psalms 46:5
    • h. city = inhabitants 1 S 4:13; 5:12; Is 22:2 Ru 1:19, so 2 S 20:22 (reading הָעִיר for MT הָעָם) 𝔊 We Dr al. (cf. also foll.). e.g. 1 Samuel 4:13
    • i. combinations are: ע׳ רֹכְלִים Ez 17:4 city of merchants; ע׳ מוֹשָׁב ψ 107:4, 7, 36 city for dwelling; especially of character or condition: †ע׳ הַצֶּדֶק Is 1:26, †ע׳ הָאֱמֶת Zc 8:3; †ע׳ הַקֹּדֶשׁ Is 48:2; 52:1 Ne 11:1, 18, cf. Dn 9:24, all of Jerus.; עָרֵי קָדְשֶׁ֑ךָ Je 5:17 of Judaean cities; of foreign cities, ע׳ תְּהִלָּה Je 49:25, הַהֻלָּלָה הָע׳ Ez 26:17, הָע׳ הָעַלִּיזָה Zp 2:15; of Jerus. also הָע׳ הַיּוֹנָה Zp 3:1 oppressive city, ע׳ (הַ)דָּמִים bloody city Ez 22:2; 24:6, 9 and (of Nineveh) Na 3:1. e.g. Ezekiel 17:4
  • 2. of fortress in a city especially עִיר דָּוִד 2 S 5:7, 9; 6:10 + often (v. דָּוִד); ע׳ בֵּית הַבָּ֑עַל 2 K 10:25 (crpt.; Klo proposes דְּבִיר for ע׳, cf. Kmp Benz Kit); ע׳ הַמַּיִם 2 S 12:27 (so read also v 26, see 1 d). e.g. 2 Samuel 5:7
  • 3. appar. fortified place, of any size, בְּכָל־עָרֵיהֶם מִמִּגְדַּל נוֹצְרִים עַד־ עִיר מִבְצָר 2 K 17:9 = 18:8; cf. Nu 13:9 (P; but on comp. of ver. see Di); perhaps also ע׳ עֲמָלֵק 1 S 15:5 (HPS).—Ho 7:4 v. I. עור Hiph. e.g. 2 Kings 17:9

עיר III m. in בְּנֵי ע׳ 1 Ch 7

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.[m.] agitation;—of terror, ע׳ וּבֶהָלוֹת Je 15:8; of rage (si vera l.), לֹא אָבוֹא בְּעִיר Ho 11:9, but St proposes לְבָעֵר cf. We Oort Now GASm.—בָּעִיר ψ 73:20 v. עור Hiph.—ii, iii. עִיר v. p. 746 infr.

III. n.f. Gn 10:12 (AlbrechtZAW xvi. 49 f.) city, town (√ unkn.; NH id.;? Ph. ער Lzb345; Sab. ער fortified height (cf. 3) PräZMG xxvi (1872), 437, ערן, עהרן city CISiv. pp. 94, 95, 173);—ע׳ abs. Gn 4:17 +, cstr. 24:10 +; הָעִ֫ירָה 1 K 14:12 + 7 times; sf. עִירִי 2 S 19:38 + 2 times, etc.; pl. עָרִים Is 6:11 +, עֲיָרִים Ju 10:4 (textual error, or word-play, cf. GFM); cstr. עָרֵי Gn 19:29 +; sf. עָרַי Zc 1:17, עָרֵיכֶם Is 1:7 +, etc.;—

IV. n.pr.m. in בְּנֵי ע׳ 1 Ch 7:12, text dub., v. Be Kau.

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Derived from עור (ʻûwr) (H5782) — to awake.

Part of speech: Noun Masculine TWOT: 1587a , 1615


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.

עֲיָירוֹת

  • , pl. of עִיר.

*עַיִר

  • (= h. עַיִר; v. עוּר; cmp. נַעַר) foal. Targ. Zech. IX, 9.—Pl. עַיְרִין. Targ. Jud. X, 4; v. עִיל.

עִיר I

  • (עוּר) guardian, angel. Midr. Till. to Ps. CXVIII, 8 ולא ירד עמו לא ע׳ ולא שרף וכ׳ ed. Bub. (oth. ed. לא ע׳ ולא קדיש, borrowed from Dan. IV, 10) nor went down with him (Abraham) a guardian, or Seraph, or angel. Ib. to Ps. 1 (play on עיר, Gen. XI, 4) ואין ע׳ אלא אלוה ʿir means a deity (ref. to Dan. l. c.).—Pl. עִירִין. Pes. 33ᵃ (quot. fr. Dan. IV, 14) בגזירת ע׳ וכ׳ by the decree of the guardians (scholars) the word (is established) &c., i.e. they have so decided at college.—[עִיר awake, v. עוּר ch.] e.g. Daniel 4:10

עִיר II

  • [watch-tower, fort,] town, city. B. Kam. 80ᵇ הלוקח ע׳ בארץ וכ׳ he who buys a township in Palestine, is bound by law to buy also the accesses to it on four sides. Snh. 17ᵇ כל ע׳ שאין בה עשרה וכ׳ in a town in which there are not the following ten things (institutions), a scholar is not permitted to live. Snh. I, 6 וכמה יהא בע׳ וכ׳ and how large must the population of a town be, to be fit as a seat for a Sanhedrin? Yoma 20ᵇ הָעִ׳ (Ms. M. רומי) the City of Rome; Pes. 119ᵃ בָּעִ׳ (Ms. M. ברומי) in Rome; a. v. fr.—Pl. עָרִים, עֲיָירוֹת. Tosef. Macc. III (II), 1; Macc. 9ᵇ שלש ע׳ הבדיל וכ׳ Moses set apart three towns (of refuge). Ib. II, 4, a. fr. עָרֵי מקלט, v. מִקְלָט. Meg. I, 1, sq.; 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.


Forms in the corpus

The 276 distinct written forms H5892 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.

Form Parsing Example Uses
הָ/עִ֔יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 21:3 51
עָרֵ֣י Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Deuteronomy 3:10 49
עִ֣יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Daniel 9:24 47
הָ/עִ֖יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 22:15 47
הָ/עִ֑יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 4:3 40
הָ/עִיר֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 20:20 33
הָ/עִ֣יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 21:6 32
הָ/עִֽיר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 22:17 29
עָרֵ֥י Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct 1 Samuel 27:5 26
עָרִ֥ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Ezekiel 30:7 24
עָרִ֖ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Deuteronomy 19:2 23
בְּ/עָרֵ֣י Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Esther 9:19 22
הָ/עִ֥יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 13:15 22
עִ֥יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 34:3 21
עִ֖יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 4:1 19
בְּ/עִ֣יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Chronicles 15:1 18
הֶ/עָרִ֖ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Deuteronomy 2:35 12
הָ/עִ֗יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 45:7 12
עִיר֖/וֹ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Deuteronomy 21:19 12
בְּ/עָרֵ֥י Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct 1 Kings 13:32 10
הֶ/עָרִ֣ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Ezekiel 6:6 10
הֶ/עָרִ֥ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Deuteronomy 4:42 10
הָ/עִ֤יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 13:16 10
בָּ/עִ֣יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 11:6 9
עִיר֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 3:4 8
הֶ֣/עָרִ֔ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Deuteronomy 20:15 8
הָ/עִ֛יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Amos 5:3 8
עִֽיר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 10:15 7
בְּ/עִ֥יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct Ezekiel 17:4 7
הָ/עִ֜יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 45:6 7
לָ/עִ֔יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 48:15 7
עָרִ֔ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Deuteronomy 4:41 7
עָרִ֛ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Deuteronomy 1:28 7
עָרֵ֧י Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct 1 Chronicles 6:67 7
עִ֗יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 11:4 6
עִיר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Samuel 22:19 6
בְּ/עִ֖יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Construct 1 Kings 11:43 6
בָּ/עִ֑יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 28:3 6
בָּ/עִ֗יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 Samuel 20:29 6
הָ/עִ֨יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 21:3 6
וְ/הָ/עִ֣יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Esther 8:15 6
וּ/בְ/עָרֵ֣י Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct 2 Chronicles 17:2 6
עִ֔יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 20:10 6
עִ֤יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 2 Chronicles 11:12 5
בָ/עִ֔יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 22:24 5
בָּ/עִ֔יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 7:15 5
בָּ/עִֽיר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 7:19 5
הֶֽ/עָרִים֙ Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Genesis 35:5 5
עָרִ֣ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Hosea 8:14 5
עָרֵ֤י Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Exodus 1:11 5
בָּ/עִ֖יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 22:23 4
הֶ/עָרִ֗ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Joshua 11:13 4
הֶֽ/עָרִ֔ים Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute Deuteronomy 1:22 4
הָ/עִיר֒ Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 20:30 4
וְ/הָ/עִ֨יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Daniel 9:26 4
לָ/עִ֖יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 24:11 4
לָ/עִֽיר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 11:23 4
עָרֵי/הֶ֖ם Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct 1 Chronicles 4:31 4
בְּ/עִ֔יר Noun, Common, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Amos 3:6 3
בְּ/עָרֵ֤י Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Construct Jeremiah 33:10 3

The 60 most common forms are shown; 216 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5892, 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 18 — not the complete family. 13 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 879 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 936 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

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.

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

Comparing translations? Open the Compare panel on any verse page to stack up to four side by side.