צֹאן
flock
also: small cattle, sheep, sheep and goats, flocks fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
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
- Both
- Attested as both masculine and feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute 178 times (65%)
- Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Construct 94 times (34%)
- Noun, Common, Both, Plural, Construct 2 times (1%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 274 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Page 2 of 2 — showing verses 201–247 of 247 distinct verses where H6629 appears, across 30 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.
Jeremiah 18 verses
- Jeremiah 25:34 הַ/צֹּ֔אן ptcl def.art + n c bs Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow [in ashes], you principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and you shall fall like a goodly vessel.
- Jeremiah 25:35 הַ/צֹּֽאן ptcl def.art + n c bs The shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
- Jeremiah 25:36 הַ/צֹּ֑אן ptcl def.art + n c bs A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the principal of the flock! for Yahweh lays waste their pasture.
- Jeremiah 31:12 צֹ֖אן n c bs They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
- Jeremiah 33:12 צֹֽאן n c bs Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Yet again shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without animal, and in all the cities of it, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
- Jeremiah 33:13 הַ/צֹּ֛אן ptcl def.art + n c bs In the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks again pass under the hands of him who numbers them, says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 49:20 הַ/צֹּ֔אן ptcl def.art + n c bs Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.
- Jeremiah 49:29 וְ/צֹאנָ/ם֙ conj + n c bs cs + sfx pers 3mp Their tents and their flocks shall they take; they shall carry away for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry to them, Terror on every side!
- Jeremiah 50:6 צֹ֤אן n c bs My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting-place.
- Jeremiah 50:8 צֹֽאן n c bs Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks.
- Jeremiah 50:45 הַ/צֹּ֔אן ptcl def.art + n c bs Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.
Ezekiel 19 verses
- Ezekiel 24:5 הַ/צֹּאן֙ ptcl def.art + n c bs Take the choice of the flock, and also a pile [of wood] for the bones under [the caldron]; make it boil well; yes, let the bones of it be boiled in the midst of it.
- Ezekiel 25:5 צֹ֑אן n c bs I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the children of Ammon a couching-place for flocks: and you shall know that I am Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 34:2 הַ/צֹּ֔אן ptcl def.art + n c bs Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and tell them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn't the shepherds feed the sheep?
- Ezekiel 34:3 הַ/צֹּ֖אן ptcl def.art + n c bs You eat the fat, and you clothe you with the wool, you kill the fatlings; but you don't feed the sheep.
- Ezekiel 34:6 צֹאנִ/י֙ צֹאנִ֔/י n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill: yes, my sheep were scattered on all the surface of the earth; and there was none who searched or sought.
- Ezekiel 34:8 צֹאנִ֣/י צֹאנִ֨/י צֹאנִ֑/י צֹאנִ֖/י n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became a prey, and my sheep became food to all the animals of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my sheep, but the shepherds fed themselves, and didn't feed my sheep;
- Ezekiel 34:10 צֹאנִ֣/י צֹ֔אן צֹאנִ/י֙ n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs n c bs n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them.
- Ezekiel 34:11 צֹאנִ֖/י n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.
- Ezekiel 34:12 צֹאנ/וֹ֙ צֹאנִ֑/י n c bs cs + sfx pers 3ms n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
- Ezekiel 34:15 צֹאנִ/י֙ n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 34:17 צֹאנִ֔/י n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs As for you, O my flock, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats.
- Ezekiel 34:19 וְ/צֹאנִ֑/י conj + n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs As for my sheep, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet.
- Ezekiel 34:22 לְ/צֹאנִ֔/י prep + n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
- Ezekiel 34:31 צֹאנִ֛/י צֹ֥אן n c bs cs + sfx pers 1cs n c bs cs You my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 36:37 כַּ/צֹּ֖אן prep det + n c bs Thus says the Lord Yahweh: For this, moreover, will I be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.
- Ezekiel 36:38 כְּ/צֹ֣אן כְּ/צֹ֤אן צֹ֣אן prep + n c bs cs prep + n c bs cs n c bs cs As the flock for sacrifice, as the flock of Jerusalem in her appointed feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 43:23 הַ/צֹּ֖אן ptcl def.art + n c bs When you have made an end of cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without blemish, and a ram out of the flock without blemish.
- Ezekiel 43:25 הַ/צֹּ֖אן ptcl def.art + n c bs Seven days shall you prepare every day a goat for a sin-offering: they shall also prepare a young bull, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish.
- Ezekiel 45:15 הַ/צֹּ֤אן ptcl def.art + n c bs and one lamb of the flock, out of two hundred, from the well-watered pastures of Israel; -for a meal-offering, and for a burnt offering, and for peace-offerings, to make atonement for them, says the Lord Yahweh.
Hosea 1 verse
Joel 1 verse
Amos 2 verses
- Amos 6:4 מִ/צֹּ֔אן prep + n c bs Who lie on beds of ivory, And stretch themselves on their couches, And eat the lambs out of the flock, And the calves out of the midst of the stall;
- Amos 7:15 הַ/צֹּ֑אן ptcl def.art + n c bs and Yahweh took me from following the flock, and Yahweh said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'
Jonah 1 verse
Micah 3 verses
- Micah 2:12 כְּ/צֹ֣אן prep + n c bs I will surely assemble, Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, As a flock in the midst of their pasture; They will swarm with people.
- Micah 5:8 צֹ֑אן n c bs The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, In the midst of many peoples, Like a lion among the animals of the forest, Like a young lion among the flocks of sheep; Who, if he goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, And there is no one to deliver.
- Micah 7:14 צֹ֚אן n c bs cs Shepherd your people with your staff, The flock of your heritage, Who dwell by themselves in a forest, In the midst of fertile pasture land, let them feed; In Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
Habakkuk 1 verse
Zephaniah 1 verse
Zechariah 7 verses
- Zechariah 9:16 כְּ/צֹ֣אן prep + n c bs cs Yahweh their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people; For they are like the jewels of a crown, Lifted on high over his land.
- Zechariah 10:2 צֹ֔אן n c bs For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; And they have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore they go their way like sheep. They are oppressed, because there is no shepherd.
- Zechariah 11:4 צֹ֥אן n c bs cs Thus says Yahweh my God: "Feed the flock of slaughter.
- Zechariah 11:7 צֹ֣אן הַ/צֹּ֑אן הַ/צֹּֽאן n c bs cs ptcl def.art + n c bs ptcl def.art + n c bs So I fed the flock of slaughter, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called "Favor," and the other I called "Union," and I fed the flock.
- Zechariah 11:11 הַ/צֹּאן֙ ptcl def.art + n c bs It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was the word of Yahweh.
- Zechariah 11:17 הַ/צֹּ֔אן ptcl def.art + n c bs Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will be on his arm, and on his right eye. His arm will be completely withered, and his right eye will be totally blinded!"
- Zechariah 13:7 הַ/צֹּ֔אן ptcl def.art + n c bs "Awake, sword, against my shepherd, And against the man who is close to me," says Yahweh of Hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; And I will turn my hand against the little ones.
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.
At its core, צאן (tsôʼn) means “flock.” Not a single-sense word: its full sense range also takes in “small cattle”, “sheep”, and “sheep and goats”. With 247 verses in 30 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. First canonically at Genesis 4:2, it enters the text early. From the same root come צנא and צאנן. Dig into 247-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6629 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 →
- 247
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 247 distinct verses.
- 30 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 30 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #180
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 180 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 247 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 247 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 103 verses · 42%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 95 verses · 38%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 49 verses · 20%
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: Sheep 97×, Flock 68×, Flocks 43×
- American Standard Version: Sheep 88×, Flock 63×, Flocks 40×
- Berean Standard Bible: Sheep 85×, Flock 70×, Flocks 62×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Flock 95×, Sheep 69×, Flock s 32×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6629 across 264 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 28 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 10 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6629 across 265 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 50 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 H6629 across 259 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 22 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 15 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6629 across 277 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 19 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
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 5 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. lit.
- a. small cattle, usually of sheep and goats in one flock (RobBR i. 477) Gn 30:31, 32 +; sheep specified also 21:28 (כִּבְשׂת הַצּ׳), 31:38 (אֵילֵי צ׳) +; sheep only 1 S 25:2 (+ עִזִּים); goats specified Gn 27:9; Je 50:8; צ׳ as yielding (1) animals for food Am 6:4 (כָּרִים), 1 S 14:32; 2 S 12:4; Ne 5:18 +; צ׳ מַאֲכָל ψ 44:12 (in sim.); (2) wool Gn 31:19 + (v. [גָּזַז], גֵּז); (3) milk, חֲלֵב צ׳ Dt 32:14 (? goats’ milk, cf. Pr 27:27); (4) sacrif. victims Gn 4:4 (J), Lv 1:2, 10; 3:6; Nu 15:3 (all P), 22:40 (E), Dt 12:6, 17, 21 + often; so צֹאן קָדָשִׁים Ez 36:38a, cf. בְּכוֹרֵי בְקָרֵינוּ וְצֹאנֵינוּ Ne 10:37; in gen. as property (often + בָּקָר, etc.) Gn 12:16; 13:5; 24:35 Jb 1:3; 42:12 + often (v. also ii. [עַשְׁתָּרוֹת]); gift Gn 20:14; 21:27; 38:17 (goat), Dt 15:14; 2 Ch 17:11; booty 1 S 15:9, 15 +. e.g. Genesis 30:31
- b. צ׳ sometimes of a definite number of animals (i.e. as pl. of שֶׂה, etc.): two Is 7:21, four Ex 21:37 (larger numbers v. 1 S 25:2, 5, 18; Nu 31:32, 36; Ne 5:18; Jb 1:3; 42:12 supr.).—Vid. also בֵּן 7 b; גְּדֵרָה, מִכְלָה, מַרְבֵּץ, נָוֶה, עֵדֶר; כֶּלֶב, רֹעֶה, שַׁעַר. e.g. Isaiah 7:21
- 2. sim. of multitude Ez 36:37, 38, cf. ψ 107:41; of children Jb 21:11; of dead, with death as shepherd ψ 49:15; of (shepherdless) Isr. Nu 27:17; 1 K 22:17 = 2 Ch 18:16; Zc 10:2; 13:7, wandering in sin Is 53:6; of Isr. led by י׳ ψ 77:21; 78:52; 80:2, cf. Zc 9:16 (on text v. We Now); Ez 34:12; of Isr. in distress, כְּצ׳ טִבְחָה ψ 44:23, cf. (of wicked) צ׳ לְטִבְחָה Je 12:3; of scattered Bab. Is 13:14. e.g. Ezekiel 36:37
- 3. metaph. of multitude, צ׳ אָדָם Ez 36:38; of Isr. 2 S 24:17 = 1 Ch 21:17; Je 23:1, 2, 3; Ez 24:5, and especially sustained fig. 34:2, 3 + 17 times 34, also Zc 11:7, 17; צ׳ אֹבְדוֹת Je 50:6, צ׳ תִּפְאַרְתֵּךְ 13:20; of Isr. under י׳’s care, (-וֹ, י—ִ) צ׳ מַרְעִיתֶ֑ךָ ψ 74:1; 79:13; 100:3; Ez 34:31, also צ׳ יָדוֹ ψ 95:7 (‖ עַם־מַרְעִיתוֹ; read perhaps צ׳ מַרְעִיתוֹ, עַם יָדוֹ, so Che al.); צ׳ נַחֲלָתֶ֑ךָ Mi 7:14; also in combinations: אַדִּירֵי הַצּ׳ Je 25:34, 35, 36, צ׳ חַהֲרֵגָה Zc 11:4, 7 (cf. ψ 44:23), עֲנִיֵּי הַצּ׳ v 7, 11 (all of Isr.); of Edom צְעִירֵי הַצּ׳ Je 49:20; 50:45. e.g. Ezekiel 36:38
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
n.coll.f. Gn 30:36 (poss. m. v 39a +, KöSynt. § 247 g, but dub., v 39b c. vb. fpl., as usually; in 1 S 15:14 join הַזֶּה with קוֹל; v. further Albr ZAW xv (1895), 316 ff.) small cattle, sheep and goats, flock, flocks;—צ׳ abs. Gn 4:2 +, cstr. 29:9 +; sf. צֹאנוֹ 4:4 +; צֹאנֵנוּ Ex 10:9, צֹאונֵנוּ ψ 144:13; as pl. צֹאנֵינוּ Ne 10:37 van d. H. Gi (not Baer); s. [צֹנֶא] צֹנֶה p. 856, etc.;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: from an unused root meaning to migrate
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.
צֹאן
- (b. h.) flock, small cattle. Gen. R. s. 73 צֹאנוֹ של לבן Laban’s flock. Gen. R. s. 42 אם אין תישים אין צ׳ אם אין צ׳ וכ׳ where there are no bucks, there is no flock, and where there is no flock, there is no shepherd; Lev. R. s. 11; Esth. R. introd.; a. fr.—צ׳ ברזל, v. בַּרְזֶל.
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 117 distinct written forms H6629 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.
The 60 most common forms are shown; 57 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6629, 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 231 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 247 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 4:2
- Exodus 2:16
- Leviticus 1:2
- Numbers 11:22
- Deuteronomy 7:13
- Joshua 7:24
- 1 Samuel 8:17
- 2 Samuel 7:8
- 1 Kings 1:9
- 2 Kings 5:26
- 1 Chronicles 4:39
- 2 Chronicles 5:6
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.
