עָנָן
cloud
also: cloudy, cloud-mass fuller range ↓
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
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H6051 appears in the Book of Psalms — 4 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.
Psalms
- Psalms 78:14 בֶּ/עָנָ֣ן prep det + n c ms In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, And all night with a light of fire.
- Psalms 97:2 עָנָ֣ן n c ms Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
- Psalms 99:7 עָ֭נָן n c ms He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. They kept his testimonies, The statute that he gave them.
- Psalms 105:39 עָנָ֣ן n c ms He spread a cloud for a covering, Fire to give light in the night.
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 ענן centers on the idea of “cloud.” First canonically at Genesis 9:13, it enters the text early. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 80 verses — moderately common. Beyond “cloud” it also covers “cloudy” and “cloud-mass” — see its full sense range. Related forms include ענן, ענן and עננה. Dig into 80-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6051 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 →
- 80
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 80 distinct verses.
- 18 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 18 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #470
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 470 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 80 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 80 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 44 verses · 55%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 21 verses · 26%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 15 verses · 19%
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 2 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†: Cloud 68×, Clouds 6×, Cloudy 6×
- American Standard Version†: Cloud 61×, Clouds 6×, And 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Cloud 61×, Clouds 13×, Like a cloud 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Cloud 69×, Clouds 10×, Cloud of 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6051 across 87† 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 H6051 across 86† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 15 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 H6051 across 87† 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.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6051 across 90† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 4 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
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.
- 1. cloud-mass:
- a. especially of theophanic cloud (58 times), chiefly at Exodus in JE (less often P), usually עַמּוּד הֶע׳ Ex 13:21, 22 + (v. עַמּוּד), but also ע׳ alone Ex 34:5 cf. 14:20 (J), Nu 10:34; 11:25; 14:14 (all JE); עַב־הֶע׳ Ex 19:9, ע׳ כָּבֵד v 16 (E); ע׳ in P Ex 16:10; 24:15 + 23 times; also Dt 1:33; 4:11; 5:19, ψ 78:14; 105:39; in temple 1 K 8:10, 11 = 2 Ch 5:13, 14, cf. Ez 1:4; 10:3, 4; hence in gen. ψ 97:2, as symbol of protection Is 4:5; as a barrier La 3:44; cf. וע׳ אֲבַק רַגְלָיו Na 1:3. e.g. Exodus 13:21
- b. of rain-bow cloud Gn 9:13, 14(×2), 16 (P), Ez 1:28 (sim.). e.g. Genesis 9:13
- c. עֲנַן־בֹּקֶר Ho 6:4; 13:3 (sim. of transitoriness; on phenom. in Pal. v. ChaplinPEQ, 1883, 19), cf. Is 44:22; Jb 7:9 (both id.); sim. of invasion Ez 38:9, 16, pl. Je 4:13. e.g. Hosea 6:4
- d. poet. in various connex. Jb 26:8, 9; 38:9; c. אוֹר as thunder-cloud 37:11, 15; e.g. Job 26:8
- e. symbol. of gloom Ez 30:18; 32:7; יוֹם ע׳ וַעֲרָפֶל Zp 1:15; Ez 34:12; Jo 2:2, cf. Ez 30:3 (all of day of י׳). e.g. Ezekiel 30:18
- 2. ע׳ קְטֹרֶת Lv 16:13 (P) cloud of incense, so Ez 8:11 (del. ע׳ 𝔊 Co Berthol, not Toy). e.g. Leviticus 16:13
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. Ex 19:16 cloud-mass, cloud;—(הֶ)ע׳ abs. Ex 19:9 +; cstr. עֲנַזִ Ho 6:4 +; sf. עֲנָֽנְךָ Nu 14:14, עֲנָנוֹ Jb 26:9; 37:15; pl. עֲנָנִים Je 4:13;—
II. n.pr.m. Ne 10:27, Ηναμ, Η(ι)ναν (cf. n.pr.m. Sab. ענן SabDenkm30; Palm. ענני).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from ענן (ʻânan) (H6049) — to practice sorcery.
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 48 distinct written forms H6051 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6051, 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
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 7 — not the complete family. 3 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 72 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 80 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 9:13
- Exodus 13:21
- Leviticus 16:2
- Numbers 9:15
- Deuteronomy 1:33
- 1 Kings 8:10
- 2 Chronicles 5:13
- Job 7:9
- Psalms 97:2
- Isaiah 4:5
- Jeremiah 4:13
- Lamentations 3:44
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.
