עָנַן
to practice sorcery
‘to practice sorcery’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Poel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Polel
- A stem of hollow/geminate roots functioning like the Piel — intensive active.
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
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).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 4 times (36%)
- Verb, Poel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Polel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Poel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Polel, Participle Active, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (9%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 11 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H6049 appears — 11 distinct verses across 9 books. 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.
Genesis 1 verse
Leviticus 1 verse
Deuteronomy 2 verses
- Deuteronomy 18:10 מְעוֹנֵ֥ן Poel ptcp.act ms There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices sorcery, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,
- Deuteronomy 18:14 מְעֹנְנִ֥ים Poel ptcp.act mp For these nations, that you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice sorcery, and to diviners; but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you so to do.
Judges 1 verse
2 Kings 1 verse
2 Chronicles 1 verse
Isaiah 2 verses
- Isaiah 2:6 וְ/עֹֽנְנִ֖ים conj + Poel ptcp.act mp For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled from the east, With those who practice divination like the Philistines, And they clasp hands with the children of foreigners.
- Isaiah 57:3 עֹנְנָ֑ה Polel ptcp.act fs But draw near here, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the prostitute.
Jeremiah 1 verse
Micah 1 verse
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.
ענן — transliterated ʻânan — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to practice sorcery.” It first appears in Genesis 9:14. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 11 verses — uncommon. Its lexical range runs to 2 senses. Related forms include ענן and ענניה. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6049 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 →
- 11
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 11 distinct verses.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,210
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,210 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 11 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Deuteronomy 2 verses 18%
- Isaiah 2 verses 18%
- Genesis 1 verse 9%
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 11 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 6 verses · 55%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 4 verses · 36%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 1 verse · 9%
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: Are soothsayers 1×, Enchanters 1×, He observed times 1×
- American Standard Version: Practise augury 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Conjurers 1×, Conjury 1×, Diviners’ 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Soothsayers 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6049 across 11 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6049 across 11 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H6049 across 11 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6049 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 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 2 senses 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.
- (Piel) to make appear, produce, bring (clouds)
- (Poel) to practise soothsaying, conjure
Word origin
vb. Pōʿ. practise soothsaying (prob. denom., but orig. meaning dub.; connex. with i. עָנָן (De Is 2:6) now gen. abandoned; LöwZMG xxxi (1877), 539 cp. עַיִן eye, so WeSkizzen iii. 148 (but v. infr.); RSJPhil. xiv (1885), 119 f. cp. Arabic غُنَّةٌ nasal twang, hum of insects, whence diviners as crooning; Ew Gerber31 of diviner as interpreting hum of insects, whisper of leaves, etc.; WeHeid. 2, 204 now cp. عَنَّ appear, i.e. dealers in phenomena);—Pf. 3 ms. consec. וְעוֹנֵן 2 K 21:6 = 2 Ch 33:6; Impf. 2 mpl. וְלֹא תְעוֹנֵ֑נוּ Lv 19:26 (H); Pt. as subst. מְעוֹנֵן Dt 18:10 (forbidden), pl. מְעֹנְנִים v 14, מְעוֹ׳ Mi 5:11, אֵלוֹן מְעוֹנְנִים Ju 9:37 (v. i. אֵלוֹן; seat of an oracle, cf. RSSem i. 179, 2nd ed. 196); also (without מְ, cf. Sta§ 233 Köi. 349) עֹנְנִים Is 2:6, sf. עֹנְנֵיכֶם Je 27:9; fs. in בְּנֵי עֹנְנָה Is 57:3 sons of a soothsaying woman, fig. of apostates.—Vid. כִּשֵּׁף, II. [נָחַשׁ], [קָסַם].
— 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
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.
עָנַן
- (b. h.), Pi. עִנֵּן to make cloudy. Part. pass. מְעוּנָּן; יום המע׳ a cloudy day. Neg. II, 2. Yoma 28ᵇ; a. fr.—[Polel עוֹנֵן, v. עוּן.]
עֲנַן I
- (preced.) to gather clouds. Targ. O. Gen. IX, 14 בעֲנָנוּתִי.
- to augur from clouds. Targ. II Kings XXI, 6. Targ. O. Lev. XIX, 26 תְעָנוֹן ed. Berl. (oth. ed. תְעַנּוּן, contr. of תְעַנְּנוּן; Ms. II תְעוֹנְנוּן, Pol. of עוּן).—V. מְעָנֵין, a. עָנְנָא.
עָנָן I
- Anan, an Amora, disciple of Samuel. Y. Sabb. III, beg. 5ᶜ. Keth. 69ᵃ; a. fr.
עָנָן II
- (b. h.) cloud, frequently used in the sense of cover protection. Gen. R. s. 60 כל זמן … היה ע׳ קשור וכ׳ as long as Sarah lived, a cloud was tied over the entrance of her tent; וכיון שמתה פסק אותו ע׳ and when she was dead, that cloud ceased. Cant. R. to II, 6 וימינו זה עֲנַן שכינה וכ׳ … ‘and his right hand embraces me’, that means the cloud of the Divine Presence in the future world (with ref. to Is. LX, 19). Y. Taan. III, 66ᶜ, v. עָנָיו; a. fr.—Pl. עֲנָנִים. Taan. 9ᵇ (ref. to Gen. II, 6) מלמד שהע׳ מתגברים וכ׳ this teaches that the clouds (like a hose) swell and rise to the sky, and there open their mouth like a hose and receive the rain water; Gen. R. s. 13. Ib. אין ע׳ אלא מלמעלה clouds (like a hose to receive the waters) come from above (ref. to Dan. VII, 13); אין ע׳ אלא מלמטה the clouds come from below (ref. to Ps. CXXXV, 7); Y. Succ. I, 52ᵇ bot.; Yalk. Ps. 883. R. Hash. 3ᵃ (ref. to Num. XXI, 1) שמע … ונסתלקו עַנְנֵי כבוד he heard that Aaron was dead, and the clouds of glory were removed. Tanḥ. R’eh 16 משיב רוחות ומעלה ע׳ ומוריד וכ׳ causes the winds to blow, and the clouds to rise, and the rains to come down; a. fr. e.g. Isaiah 60:19
עֲנַן II
- Targ. Is. XLIV, 22. Targ. Job VII, 9 Ms. (ed. תננא). Targ. O. Lev. XXIII, 43 עֲנָנִי ed. Berl. (oth. ed. עננין); a. fr.—Ber. 59ᵃ דקטר בע׳ when the sky is covered with a light cloud, opp. עֵיבָא. Ib. דבריק בע׳, v. בְּרַק I. Gen. R. s. 13 כך הקב"ה … אייתי עֲנָנִיךְ וקבל וכ׳ so the Lord says to the earth, bring thy cloud (hose, v. preced.) and receive the rain; Yalk. Ps. 883; a. fr.—Pl. עֲנָנִין, עֲנָנַיָּא, עֲנָנֵי. Targ. II Sam. XXII, 12. Targ. Is. XLV, 8. Targ. Y. II, Num. XXI, 1 ע׳ דיקרא (= ענני כבוד, v. preced.); a. fr.—Ber. l. c. (expl. רעמים, ib. IX, 2) ע׳ בגלגלא clouds (rolling) in the sphere; (oth. opin.) ע׳ דשפכי מיא וכ׳ clouds (bottles, v. preced.) that empty the waters from one to the other; ib. ע׳ חלחולי וכ׳, v. חַלְחֵל; בריק ברקא ומנהמי ע׳ וכ׳ the lightning flashes and the clouds rumble, and then comes the rain. Taan. 25ᵃ שמעינהו לע׳ דאמרי נשדי מיטרא וכ׳ Ms. M. (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) overheard the clouds say, let us cast rain on Ammon &c. Cant. R. to IV, 8 כד אינון נקיין מן ע׳ (some ed. עֲנָנָן, f.) when the heavens are cloudless; 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 11 distinct written forms H6049 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| בְּ/עַֽנְנִ֥/י | Verb, Piel, Infinitive Construct | Genesis 9:14 | 1 |
| וְ/עֹֽנְנִ֖ים | Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Isaiah 2:6 | 1 |
| וְ/עוֹנֵ֣ן | Verb, Polel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Kings 21:6 | 1 |
| וְ/עוֹנֵ֤ן | Verb, Poel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Chronicles 33:6 | 1 |
| וּֽ/מְעוֹנְנִ֖ים | Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Micah 5:12 | 1 |
| מְעֹנְנִ֥ים | Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Deuteronomy 18:14 | 1 |
| מְעוֹנְנִֽים | Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute | Judges 9:37 | 1 |
| מְעוֹנֵ֥ן | Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Deuteronomy 18:10 | 1 |
| עֹֽנְנֵי/כֶ֖ם | Verb, Poel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Jeremiah 27:9 | 1 |
| עֹנְנָ֑ה | Verb, Polel, Participle Active, Feminine, Singular, Absolute | Isaiah 57:3 | 1 |
| תְעוֹנֵֽנוּ | Verb, Poel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Leviticus 19:26 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6049, 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 → 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 11 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 11 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 9:14
- Leviticus 19:26
- Deuteronomy 18:10
- Judges 9:37
- 2 Kings 21:6
- 2 Chronicles 33:6
- Isaiah 2:6
- Jeremiah 27:9
- Micah 5:12
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.
