אֲנִי
I
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
- Pronoun
- A word standing in for a noun (“he,” “this,” “who”).
Person
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H589 appears in the Book of Ecclesiastes — 25 distinct verses. 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.
Ecclesiastes
- Ecclesiastes 1:12 אֲנִ֣י pron pers 1cs I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
- Ecclesiastes 1:16 אֲנִ֤י אֲנִ֗י pron pers 1cs pron pers 1cs I said to myself, "Behold, I have obtained for myself great wisdom above all who were before me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge."
- Ecclesiastes 2:1 אֲנִי֙ pron pers 1cs I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with mirth: therefore enjoy pleasure;" and, behold, this also was vanity.
- Ecclesiastes 2:11 אֲנִ֗י pron pers 1cs Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and, behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 2:12 אֲנִי֙ pron pers 1cs I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly: for what can the king's successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.
- Ecclesiastes 2:13 אָ֔נִי pron pers 1cs Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.
- Ecclesiastes 2:14 אָ֔נִי pron pers 1cs The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness--and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.
- Ecclesiastes 2:15 אֲנִ֜י אֲנִ֣י אֲנִ֖י pron pers 1cs pron pers 1cs pron pers 1cs Then said I in my heart, "As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?" Then said I in my heart that this also is vanity.
- Ecclesiastes 2:18 אֲנִי֙ שֶׁ/אֲנִ֥י pron pers 1cs ptcl rel + pron pers 1cs I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
- Ecclesiastes 2:20 אֲנִ֖י pron pers 1cs Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 2:24 אָ֔נִי pron pers 1cs There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.
- Ecclesiastes 3:17 אֲנִי֙ pron pers 1cs I said in my heart, "God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work."
- Ecclesiastes 3:18 אֲנִי֙ pron pers 1cs I said in my heart, "As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.
- Ecclesiastes 4:1 אֲנִ֗י pron pers 1cs Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and, behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
- Ecclesiastes 4:2 אֲנִ֛י pron pers 1cs Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.
- Ecclesiastes 4:4 אֲנִ֜י pron pers 1cs Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man's neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
- Ecclesiastes 4:7 אֲנִ֛י pron pers 1cs Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 4:8 אֲנִ֣י pron pers 1cs There is one who is alone, and he has neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his labor, neither are his eyes satisfied with wealth. For whom then, do I labor, and deprive my soul of enjoyment? This also is vanity, yes, it is a miserable business.
- Ecclesiastes 5:18 אָ֗נִי pron pers 1cs Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion.
- Ecclesiastes 7:25 אֲנִ֤י pron pers 1cs I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity, and that foolishness is madness.
- Ecclesiastes 7:26 אֲנִ֜י pron pers 1cs I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and traps, whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner will be ensnared by her.
- Ecclesiastes 8:2 אֲנִי֙ pron pers 1cs I say, "Keep the king's command!" because of the oath to God.
- Ecclesiastes 8:12 אָ֔נִי pron pers 1cs Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.
- Ecclesiastes 8:15 אֲנִי֙ pron pers 1cs Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
- Ecclesiastes 9:16 אָ֔נִי pron pers 1cs Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
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.
אני (ʼănîy) is a Hebrew name most often rendered “I.” It first appears in Genesis 6:17. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 803 verses — among the most common. For the data behind this summary, explore 803-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H589 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 →
- 803
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 803 distinct verses.
- 37 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 37 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #50
- by frequency
- Top 50 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 50 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 803 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 803 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 420 verses · 52%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 217 verses · 27%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 166 verses · 21%
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: I 2×, Me 2×, Shall i 2×
- American Standard Version: I 3×, Me 2×, Shall i 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: I 722×, Surely as i 13×, I am 11×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: I 654×, Am 96×, I am 56×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H589 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 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 H589 across 14 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 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 H589 across 854 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 34 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 16 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H589 across 975 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 23 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 1 sense BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- I (first person singular - usually used for emphasis)
Word origin
pron. 1 s. comm. I (أَنَا, אֲנָא, ܐܶܢܳܐ:, አነ ) Gn 6:17; 9:9, 12 + oft. Following a ptcp. as its subj. (to express mostly either a true present or the fut. instans) Gn 18:17 הַמְכַסֶּה אֲנִי Am I hiding from Abraham that which, etc., Ju 15:3 1 S 3:13 Je 1:12; 38:14; 44:29 (v. Dr§ 135, 4). Appended to a verb, it expresses, in early Hebrew, a real emphasis, as Ju 8:23 לֹא אֶמְשֹׁל אֲנִי בָּכֶם I will not rule over you, 2 S 12:28 lest I take the city, 2 S 17:15 thus and thus did Ahitophel counsel, and thus and thus יָעַצְתִּי אָ֑נִי did I counsel; but in later Heb. it is sometimes pleonastic, Ec 2:11–15, 18–20 +. In response to a question, אָ֑נִי alone = I am, It is I, Gn 27:24 Ju 13:11 1 K 18:8 +. With הֲ, הַאֲנִי †Is 66:9. (Syn. אָנֹכִי, q.v.)
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אנכי (ʼânôkîy) (H595) — I.
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.
אני
- (= b. h. ינה, sec. r. of און, cmp. אָנַן a. b. h. ענה); Pi. (אִנָּה) אִינָּה to press, wrong, oppress; to impose, overreach in dealing, v. אוֹנָאָה. B. Mets. 59ᵇ המְאַנֶּה את הגר he who wounds a stranger’s (proselyte’s) feeling. Ib. 49ᵇ תן לי מה שאִינִּיתָנִי return to me the amount with which thou hast overreached me. Ib. 50ᵃ top מה שאניתני (Ms. R. 1 שנִתְאוֹנַנְתִּי, v. infra). Ib. 51ᵃ שאניתני (Ms. M. שאֲנַנְתָּנִי, fr. אָנַן; Mish. ib. IV, 2 שאוֹנִיתָנִי, v. אוֹנָאָה, Ms. R. 1 שהוֹנִיתָנִי, v. הוֹנָאָה, Ms. R. 2 שאונתני, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note).
- to be overreached. Ib. 49ᵇ מי נ׳ which of them has been overreached? Ib. 50ᵇ מי שנ׳ (Ms. M. מִתְאוֹנֶה); a. fr. [Nithpol. of אנן, נִתְאוֹנֵן, v. supra.] [In. Y. אוֹנָה, v. אוֹנָאָה.]
אֲנִי
- , v. אָנֹכִי) I. Succ. 53ᵃ; a. v. fr.—[Ib. IV, 5 אני והו (Y. והוא), reverential transcription of אנא יהוה, to avoid the utterance of the Tetragrammaton.]—Pl. אָנוּ. Keth. I, 6; 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 60 distinct written forms H589 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| אֲנִ֥י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 8:15 | 145 |
| אֲנִ֣י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 8:1 | 126 |
| אֲנִ֖י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ecclesiastes 2:15 | 76 |
| אֲנִי֙ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 1:10 | 57 |
| אֲנִ֤י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 9:20 | 45 |
| וַ/אֲנִ֣י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 8:5 | 33 |
| אֲנִ֛י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ecclesiastes 4:2 | 32 |
| אָֽנִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Deuteronomy 12:30 | 24 |
| אָ֔נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ecclesiastes 2:13 | 20 |
| וַ/אֲנִ֖י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Exodus 2:9 | 20 |
| וַ/אֲנִ֗י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 10:4 | 19 |
| וַ/אֲנִי֙ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 8:2 | 17 |
| אֲנִ֨י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 10:7 | 16 |
| אָ֑נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 5:8 | 16 |
| וַ/אֲנִ֥י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 8:2 | 16 |
| וַ/אֲנִ֤י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 10:17 | 15 |
| אָ֗נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ecclesiastes 5:18 | 14 |
| אֲנִ֗י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ecclesiastes 1:16 | 13 |
| אֲנִ֧י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Deuteronomy 32:39 | 12 |
| וַ/אֲנִ֕י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 11:20 | 12 |
| וַ/אֲנִ֞י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Exodus 31:6 | 11 |
| אֲ֭נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 5:8 | 10 |
| אֲנִ֞י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Exodus 10:1 | 10 |
| אֲנִ֜י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ecclesiastes 2:15 | 9 |
| אֲנִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Genesis 17:1 | 8 |
| אֲ֝נִ֗י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Psalms 2:7 | 7 |
| וַֽ/אֲנִי֙ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 14:11 | 7 |
| אֲֽנִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 5:3 | 6 |
| וַ֭/אֲנִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Psalms 2:6 | 6 |
| אָ֖נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Genesis 27:34 | 5 |
| אָ֭נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 7:12 | 5 |
| וַ/אֲנִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Daniel 10:12 | 5 |
| וַ֝/אֲנִ֗י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Psalms 31:6 | 5 |
| אֲנִֽי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 36:32 | 4 |
| אָ֕נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 18:3 | 4 |
| אָ֨נִי֙ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 20:3 | 4 |
| וַ/אֲנִ֛י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 20:31 | 4 |
| אֲנִ֕י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Genesis 17:4 | 3 |
| אֲנִי֩ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Amos 4:6 | 3 |
| אָ֣נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 33:11 | 3 |
| אָ֥נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Psalms 6:2 | 3 |
| אֲנִ֔י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 9:10 | 2 |
| אֲנִי֮ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 7:11 | 2 |
| אָנִי֒ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 17:19 | 2 |
| וַ/אֲנִ֨י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | 1 Samuel 19:3 | 2 |
| וַֽ/אֲנִי֙ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | 1 Kings 18:24 | 2 |
| אֲנִ֪י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Psalms 116:16 | 1 |
| אָ֜נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 34:8 | 1 |
| אָ֝֗נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 9:20 | 1 |
| אָ֡נִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Zephaniah 2:9 | 1 |
| אָנִֽי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Judges 9:2 | 1 |
| אָנִי֩ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Malachi 1:6 | 1 |
| אָנִי֮ | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Jeremiah 22:24 | 1 |
| הַ/אֲנִ֥י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Isaiah 66:9 | 1 |
| וַ֠/אֲנִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | 1 Kings 5:9 | 1 |
| וַֽ/אֲנִ֛י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | 2 Chronicles 6:2 | 1 |
| וַֽ/אֲנִי | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Isaiah 43:12 | 1 |
| וַֽ/אֲנִ֣י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Joshua 17:14 | 1 |
| שֶׁ/אֲנִ֣י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Song of Solomon 1:6 | 1 |
| שֶׁ/אֲנִ֥י | Pronoun, Personal, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ecclesiastes 2:18 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H589, 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 → 2 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 744 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 803 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 6:17
- Exodus 2:9
- Leviticus 11:44
- Numbers 3:12
- Deuteronomy 12:30
- Joshua 5:14
- Judges 1:3
- Ruth 1:21
- 1 Samuel 1:26
- 2 Samuel 3:13
- 1 Kings 1:5
- 2 Kings 1:10
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.