עֶ֫לֶם
young man
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
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.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H5958 appears — 2 distinct verses across 1 book. 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.
1 Samuel 2 verses
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 עלם centers on the idea of “young man.” The Hebrew Bible uses it only 2 verses. 1 Samuel dominates its distribution — 2 of 2 verses. Its earliest occurrence is 1 Samuel 17:56. Related forms include עלם, עולם and עלום. Dig into 2-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H5958 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 →
- 2
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 2 distinct verses.
- 1 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 1 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #4,807
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 4,807 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 2 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 1 Samuel 2 verses 100%
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 2 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 verses · 100%
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: Stripling 1×, Young man 1×
- American Standard Version: Boy 1×, Stripling is 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Young man 1×, Young man is 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Boy 1×, Youth 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H5958 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H5958 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H5958 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H5958 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
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.
- young man
Word origin
עֶ֫לֶם n.m. young man
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from עלם (ʻâlam) (H5956) — to hide.
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 2 distinct written forms H5958 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/עָֽלֶם | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Samuel 17:56 | 1 |
| לָ/עֶ֔לֶם | Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | 1 Samuel 20:22 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H5958, 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
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.
- יעלם Yaʻlâm H3281 Jaalam
- עילם ʻÊylâm H5867 Elam
- עלמון ʻAlmôwn H5960 Almon
- עלמת ʻÂlemeth H5964 Alemeth
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 10 — 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 1 verse that also exists in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 2 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.
