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עָלַם

to hide

‘to hide’ is one of 4 main senses fuller range ↓

H5956 Strong's Hebrew
ʻâlam Transliteration
/aw-lam'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 28 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.

“to hide” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb עלם (ʻâlam). Older and newer Bibles part ways — “hide” in the King James Version, “hidden” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. It turns up in 27 verses across 15 books, a moderately common footprint. Its earliest occurrence is Leviticus 4:13. The verb spans 4 stems, from Qal to Niphal. See the sense tree, 27-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
[idiom] any ways
Modern gloss
to hide
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 H5956 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 →

27
distinct verses
The word appears in 27 distinct verses.
15 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 15 of 39 Old Testament books.
Leviticus 4:13
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Leviticus 4:13.
Nahum 3:11
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Nahum 3:11.
#1,190
by frequency
Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,190 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 27 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 9 · 33%
  • Historical 4 · 15%
  • Wisdom 9 · 33%
  • Prophets 5 · 19%

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 27 distinct verses.

  • Writings (Ketuvim) 11 verses · 41%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 9 verses · 33%
  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 7 verses · 26%

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: Hide 6×, Be hid 3×
  • American Standard Version: Hide 5×, Be hid 4×
  • Berean Standard Bible: He is unaware 3×, Ignore it 3×, Ignore 2×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Hidden 5×, Hide yourself 5×, Is hidden 4×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H5956 across 28 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Hide” 6×
  • “Be hid” 3×

Plus 19 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 H5956 across 27 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Hide” 5×
  • “Be hid” 4×

Plus 18 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 H5956 across 27 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “He is unaware” 3×
  • “Ignore it” 3×
  • “Ignore” 2×

Plus 19 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 1 further occurrence.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H5956 across 35 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Hidden” 5×
  • “Hide yourself” 5×
  • “Is hidden” 4×
  • “Hide” 2×

Plus 19 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


7 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB

Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Hithpael (reflexive or reciprocal).

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 7 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.

Qal

  • Pt. pass. עֲלֻמֵנוּ ψ 90:8 as subst. our secret, i.e. hidden sin (‖ עֲוֹנֹת). e.g. Psalms 90:8

Niphal

  • Pf. be concealed, of wisdom, 3 fs. נֶעֶלְמָה מֵעֵינֵי Jb 28:21; of a fact or condition, נֶעְלַם 2 Ch 9:2, וְנ׳ consec. Lv 5:2, 3, 4 (all c. מִן pers.), וְנ׳ מֵעֵינֵי Lv 4:13; Nu 5:13 (all P); Pt. e.g. Job 28:21
  • 1. נֶעְלָם concealed, c. הָיָה in periphrastic conjug. 1 K 10:3 (מִן pers.); abs. כָּל־נֶעְלָם Ec 12:14. e.g. 1 Kings 10:3
  • 2. fs. תְּהִי נַעֲלָמָה Na 3:11 mayest thou become obscured (as to the senses; fig. for swoon), but very doubtful, read perhaps נעלפה? [Dr]. e.g. Nahum 3:11
  • 3. pl. נַעֲלָמִים ψ 26:4 those who conceal themselves, i.e. their thoughts, dissemblers (‖ מְתֵי שָׁוְא). e.g. Psalms 26:4

Hiphil

  • Pf. 3 ms. הֶעְלִים 2 K 4:27; 3 pl. הֶעְלִימוּ Ez 22:26; Impf. 2 ms. תַּעְלִים ψ 10:1, תַּעְלֵם La 3:56; 3 mpl. יַעְלִימוּ Lv 20:4, etc.; Inf. abs. הַעְלֵם v 4; Pt. מַעְלִים Jb 42:3; Pr 28:27;—conceal, hide, c. מִן pers. 2 K 4:27 (‖ לֹא הִגִּיד לִי); usually hide the eyes from (מִן), i.e. disregard Is 1:15; Ez 22:26, הַעְלֵם יַע׳ וגו׳ Lv 20:4, מִן om. Pr 28:27; hide the eyes by (ב) a bride 1 S 12:3 (i.e. pervert justice, but v. i. עַיִן 3 d); hide (cover) the ear La 3:56 (turn a deaf ear); hide (obscure) counsel (עֵצָה) Jb 42:3; לָמָה תַּע׳ ψ 10:1 why dost thou [י׳] hide, sc. thine eyes (so most), or practise concealment (= hide thyself)? e.g. 2 Kings 4:27

Hithpael

  • Pf. 2 ms. consec. וְהִתְעַלַּמְתָּ מֵהֶם Dt 22:1, 4 and thou hide thyself completely from them (utterly neglect to aid), so Inf. cstr. (מֵהֶם om.) לְהִתְעַלֵּם v 3; so also Impf. c. מִן, תִּתְעַלַּם ψ 55:2, תִּתְעַלָּ֑ם Is 58:7; once lit. יִתְעַלֶּם־שָׁ֑לֶג Jb 6:16 wherein snow hides itself. e.g. Deuteronomy 22:1

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

vb. conceal (NH id., der. spec.);—

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

Origin: a primitive root

Part of speech: Verb TWOT: 1629


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.

עָלַם I

  • (v. אָלַם)
  • 1. to surround, tie up.
  • 2. to be strong.
    • to tie up. Yalk. Prov. 946 quot. fr. Y’lamd. (ref. to וחושך, Prov. X, 19) לא אמרתי שתְּעַלֵּם פיך וכ׳ I did not say that thou must tie up thy mouth and sit in silence, but restrain thy lips from &c.; Yalk. Num. 738 שתְּאַלֵּים. Num. R. s. 14 (ref. to Gen. XLIX, 22) שעי׳ עינו מאשת וכ׳ he closed his eye not to look at the wife &c. (v. עָלַם II, Hif.). e.g. Proverbs 10:19

עֲלֵם

  • , to be strong. Targ. Ps. XXXVIII, 20. Targ. Josh. I, 6; a. e.—Denom. עִילָּם, fr. which imperat. עִילַּם, עִילַּמוּ. Targ. O. Deut. XXXI, 6; 7; 23 ed. Berl. (Regia עַלֵּים, עַלִּימוּ, v. Berl. Targ. O. II, p. 59). Targ. I Chr. XXII, 12 (13); a. e., v. אֲלַם.
    • 1. same (denom. of same (denom. of עַלִּים), v. supra.
    • 2. to strengthen. Targ. Ps. XXVII, 14. Targ. Y. Ex. XIV, 27 (h. text וינער, v. Mekh. B’shall., s. 6).
    • 1. to be strengthened. Targ. Ps. XXXI, 25.
    • 2. to be tied, to join, conspire. Targ. II Chr. XIII, 7 (h. text ויתאמצו).

עָלַם II

  • v. preced.) [to surround, tie up,] to conceal. Yalk. Cant. 981, v. infra.—Part. pass. עָלוּם; f. עֲלוּמָה; pl. עֲלוּמִים, עֲלוּמִין; עֲלוּמוֹת. Ab. Zar. 35ᵇ (play on עֲלָמוֹת, Cant. I, 3) קרי ביה עלומות read it ʿălumoth (secret things). e.g. Song of Solomon 1:3
    • same. Part. pass. מְעוּלָּם; f. מְעוּלֶּמֶת; pl. מְעוּלָּמִים, מְעוּלָּמִין; מְעוּלָּמוֹת. Midr. Till. to Ps. XLVI, 1 (play on עלמות, ib.) מע׳ הן הדברים וכ׳ the things we saw are hidden, we know not what we saw.
    • , Nithpa. נִתְעַלֵּם to be concealed, to escape; to hide one’s self. Num. R. s. 20 אין כל דבר נ׳ ממך nothing is unknown to thee. Y. Pes. VI, beg. 33ᵃ נֶעֶלְמָה הלכה ממנו the law escaped his memory; Bab. Pes. 66ᵃ נִתְעַלְּמָה. Y. Yoma III, 40ᵈ bot. לא … מִתְעַלֵּם מהן they did not move from there before it (the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton) escaped their memory again. Y. Ab. Zar. IV, 44ᵇ top עד שיִתְעַלֵּם מעיניהם until he is left out of their sight. Y. Ber. IV, 8ᵃ ואל תִּתְעַלֵּם מתחינתנו do not hide thyself (turn away) from our prayer; a. fr.
    • 1. to conceal. Ex. R. s. 1 (ref. to העלמה Ex. II, 8) שהֶעֱלִימָה וכ׳ she kept her own secret. Cant. R. to I, 3 (play on עלמות, ib.) על שהֶעֱלַמְתָּ מהם יום וכ׳ because thou hast concealed from them the day of death and the day of consolation, they love thee; על שהעלמת מתן וכ׳ because thou hast concealed from them the reward of the righteous &c.; Yalk. ib. 981 שעָלַמְתָּ (Kal); Midr. Till. to Ps. IX; a. fr. e.g. Exodus 2:8
    • 2. (v. עָלַם I) הע׳ עינים to close the eyes, to lose sight of. Y. Ab. Zar. IV, 44ᵃ bot. Sot. 10ᵇ ואל תַּעֲלֵם עיניך ממני do not avert thy eyes from me. Tosef. Peah IV, 20; B. Bath. 10ᵃ, a. e. המעלים … מן הצדקה who closes his eyes to charity; a. fr.
    • to be concealed. Koh. R. to III, 11 (play on הָעֹלָם ib.) ה׳ מהם שם וכ׳ the pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton was concealed from them.

עֶלֶם I

  • (preced.)
  • 1. secret. Y. Yoma III, 40ᵈ bot.; Pes. 50ᵃ (ref. to לעלם, Ex. II, 15) לע׳ כתיב it is so written that you may read l’‘elem (this is my name for secrecy).—Pl. עֲלָמוֹת. Midr. Till. to Ps. IX, 1 (play on עלמות, ib.) על הע׳ שהבן עושה וכ׳ on the secret sins which the child (of God) commits and which the Day of Atonement comes to atone for &c. e.g. Exodus 2:15
  • 2. forgetfulness, v. הֵעָלֵם.

עֶלֶם II

  • [vigorous,] lad. Yeb. 76ᵇ (ref. to I Sam. XVII, 55, sq.) התם קרי ליה נער והכא קרי ליה ע׳ וכ׳ there he calls him young man, and here, lad! He thus said to him, הלכה נתעלמה ממך thou hast forgotten the law (v. preced.). Snh. 95ᵃ (in Chald. dict.) ע׳ אייתי לי וכ׳, v. פִּלְכָא.—Fem. עַלְמָה. Ex. R. s. 1, v. עָלַם II.—Pl. עֲלָמוֹת. Cant. R. to I, 3 חלים לפניו כע׳ they dance before him like maidens; Koh. R. to I, 11. Y. Meg. II, 73ᵇ (in Chald. dict.) כאילין ע׳, v. עֲלִימוּת; a. e. e.g. 1 Samuel 17:55

עָלַם III

  • = h. עוֹלָם, eternity, world &c. Targ. Gen. IX, 16. Targ. O. Ex. XXI, 6. Targ. Ps. LXI, 7; a. v. fr.—R. Hash. 31ᵃ שיתא אלפי שני הוי ע׳ וכ׳ the world shall last six thousand years, and one thousand years it will be waste. Gitt. 56ᵇ, v. חֲשֵׁב; a. v. fr.—Midr. Sam. ch. XXIV; Yalk. ib. 139 ע׳ דשקר the world of falsehood (this world); Lev. R. s. 26 (some ed. עולם, h. form); ע׳ דקושטא the world of truth (the hereafter). Sot. 10ᵇ, a. fr. ע׳ דאתי the world to come (= h. עולם הבא).—בית ע׳ the house of eternity (euphem. for ‘the house of death’) burial ground, cemetery. Lam. R. to I, 5. Lev. R. s. 12, beg.; a. e.—Kidd. 80ᵇ אינשי דע׳ common people (opp. to scholars).—כל ע׳, כולי ע׳ (abbrev. כ"ע), v. כּוֹלָּא. Ber. 36ᵇ כ"ע לא פליגי all the authorities mentioned agree; a. v. fr.—בְּעַלְמָא in a general way, merely. Targ. Y. Lev. XXVI, 24; 28.—Sabb. 103ᵇ, v. בגלטורי. Ib. 9ᵇ להזיע בע׳ merely to sweat (not to bathe); לעיוני בע׳ merely to examine (not to do any labor); a. v. fr.—Pl. עָלְמִין, עָלְמַיָּיא; constr. עָלְמֵי. Targ. Ps. IX, 8. Targ. O. Ex. XV, 18; a. fr.—Targ. Is. XLII, 11 בתי עַלְמֵיהוֹן their graves (v. supra).

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 24 distinct written forms H5956 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’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
וְ/נֶעְלַ֣ם Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Leviticus 4:13 4
וְ/הִתְעַלַּמְתָּ֖ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 22:1 2
אַעְלִ֤ים Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Isaiah 1:15 1
הֶעְלִ֣ים Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 4:27 1
הֶעְלִ֣ימוּ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Ezekiel 22:26 1
הַעְלֵ֣ם Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute Leviticus 20:4 1
וְ/אַעְלִ֥ים Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 1 Samuel 12:3 1
וְ/נֶעְלַם֙ Verb, Niphal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Numbers 5:13 1
וְֽ֭/נֶעֶלְמָה Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Job 28:21 1
וּ/מַעְלִ֥ים Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 28:27 1
יִתְעַלֶּם Verb, Hithpael, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Job 6:16 1
יַעְלִימֽוּ֩ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Leviticus 20:4 1
לְ/הִתְעַלֵּֽם Verb, Hithpael, Infinitive Construct Deuteronomy 22:3 1
מַעְלִ֥ים Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Construct Job 42:3 1
נֶעְלַ֤ם Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Chronicles 9:2 1
נֶעְלָ֑ם Verb, Niphal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 12:14 1
נֶעְלָ֣ם Verb, Niphal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 10:3 1
נַ֝עֲלָמִ֗ים Verb, Niphal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Psalms 26:4 1
נַֽעֲלָמָ֑ה Verb, Niphal, Participle Passive, Feminine, Singular, Absolute Nahum 3:11 1
עֲ֝לֻמֵ֗/נוּ Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Construct Psalms 90:8 1
תִתְעַלָּֽם Verb, Hithpael, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 58:7 1
תִּ֝תְעַלַּ֗ם Verb, Hithpael, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Psalms 55:1 1
תַּ֝עְלִ֗ים Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Psalms 10:1 1
תַּעְלֵ֧ם Verb, Hiphil, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Lamentations 3:56 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5956, 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.

Derived from this word

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 9 — not the complete family. 4 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 27 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 27 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.

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