קָנֶה
reed
also: stalk, bone, balances 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
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
6 verses where H7070 appears in the Construct state in the Book of Ezekiel. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Ezekiel
- Ezekiel 40:3 וּ/קְנֵ֣ה conj + n c ms cs He brought me there; and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.
- Ezekiel 40:5 קְנֵ֣ה קָנֶ֣ה קָנֶ֥ה n c ms cs n c ms n c ms Behold, a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed six cubits long, of a cubit and a handbreadth each: so he measured the thickness of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.
- Ezekiel 42:16 בִּ/קְנֵ֣ה קָנִ֛ים בִּ/קְנֵ֥ה prep + n c ms cs n c mp prep + n c ms cs He measured on the east side with the measuring reed five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed round about.
- Ezekiel 42:17 קָנִ֛ים בִּ/קְנֵ֥ה n c mp prep + n c ms cs He measured on the north side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.
- Ezekiel 42:18 קָנִ֖ים בִּ/קְנֵ֥ה n c mp prep + n c ms cs He measured on the south side five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
- Ezekiel 42:19 קָנִ֖ים בִּ/קְנֵ֥ה n c mp prep + n c ms cs He turned about to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
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.
קנה (qâneh) is a Hebrew noun most often rendered “reed.” The King James Version usually renders it “reed,” while modern versions prefer “stick” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) — see the renderings breakdown. With 38 verses in 10 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. It concentrates in Ezekiel, which alone accounts for 32% of its uses. It also covers “stalk”, “bone”, and “balances”, alongside “reed” — see its full sense range. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7070 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 →
- 38
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 38 distinct verses.
- 10 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 10 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #623
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 623 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 38 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 38 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 21 verses · 55%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 13 verses · 34%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 4 verses · 11%
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: Reed 22×, Branches 19×, Reeds 6×
- American Standard Version: Reed 20×, Branches 12×, Reeds 7×
- Berean Standard Bible: Branches 9×, Rod 9×, Branch 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Stick 15×, Branches 14×, Reed 8×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7070 across 62 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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 H7070 across 61 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.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H7070 across 46 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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 16 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7070 across 70 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
10 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 10 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. stalk of grain Gn 41:5, 22 (E). e.g. Genesis 41:5
- 2. water-plant, reed, 1 K 14:15; Is 19:6 (+ סוּף), 35:7 (+ גֹּמֶא); coll., חַיַּת ק׳ ψ 68:31 beasts of (the) reeds (dwelling among them), cf. בְּסֵתֶר ק׳ וּבִצָּה Jb 40:21; מִשְׁעֶנֶת הַקּ׳ הָרָצוּץ 2 K 18:21 = Is 36:6, מִשׁ׳ ק׳ Ez 29:6, all fig. of weak support; cf. ק׳ רָצוּץ Is 42:3 (spared by עבד י׳) e.g. 1 Kings 14:15
- 3. calamus, aromatic reed, ק׳ הַטּוֹב Je 6:20 (Ges§ 126 w), ק׳־בֹשֶׁם Ex 30:23 (P); ק׳ alone Ez 27:19; Is 43:24; Ct 4:14. e.g. Jeremiah 6:20
- 4. derived meanings:
- a. measuring-rod, קְנֵה הַמִּדָּה Ez 40:3, 5 (6 cubits long, v. אַמָּה) 42:16(×2), 17, 18, 19. e.g. Ezekiel 40:3
- b. unit of measure, reed (of 6 cubits, as Assyrian ḳanû) Ez 40:5(×2) + 10 times 40, 42, + מְלוֹ הַקּ׳ 41:8 full reed (emphat.). e.g. Ezekiel 40:5
- c. beam of scales, for scales themselves Is 46:6. e.g. Isaiah 46:6
- d. shaft of lamp-stand Ex 25:31 = 37:17 (P). e.g. Exodus 25:31
- e. branches thereof, Ex 25:32(×3) = 37:18(×3) + 16 times 25, 37 (all P). e.g. Exodus 25:32
- f. shoulder-joint, Jb 31:22 (‖ שְׁכֶם). e.g. Job 31:22
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.m. Gn 41:5 stalk, reed;—abs. ק׳ 1 K 14:15 +; cstr. קְנֵה Ez 40:3 +; sf. קָנָהּ Ex 25:31; 37:17 = קָנָהֿ (Ges§ 91 e) Jb 31:22; pl. קָנִים Ex 25:32 +; cstr. קְנֵי 37:18 +; sf. קְנֹתָם 25:36; 37:22;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from קנה (qânâh) (H7069) — to acquire.
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.
קָנָה
- , v. קני II
קִנָּה
- =
- 1. = קֵן nest;
- 2. (קָנַן) affirmation, oath, vow. ק׳ מאי ק׳ של תרנגולין … לשון דקונם מיבעי if a person used the word ḳinnah to introduce a vow, how is it? did he mean a nest of chickens (in which case there would be no vow), or has it the meaning of confirmation like ḳonam? It remains doubtful.
קָנֶה
- calamus, reed; anything resembling a reed, branch of a candlestick; windpipe &c. Cant. R. to I, 6 (legend about the origin of Rome) ירד … ק׳ גדול וכ׳ Michael the archangel came down and planted a large reed in the sea &c. Taan. 20ᵃ לעולם … רך כק׳ וכ׳ man must at all times be yielding like a reed and not unbending like a cedar, v. קוֹלְמוֹס. Tosef. Sabb. XII (XIII), 14 ק׳ של מנורה the branch of a candlestick; Sabb. 47ᵃ קְנֵה מנורה; Y. ib. XII, 13ᶜ קְנֵי. Ib. ק׳ של ציידין a part of the composite pole which the hunters use (to reach the nests); Bab. l. c. קְ׳ סיידין of the whitewashers; Tosef. l. c. ציידין (Var. ס׳). Ker. 5ᵃ קְנֵה בשם sweet calamus. Kel. XVII, 16 קְ׳ מאזניים the beam of the balance. Ib. ק׳ של עני וכ׳ the poor man’s cane which has a receptacle for water.—דחה בק׳, v. דָּחָה.—Ber. 61ᵃ bot. ק׳ מוציא קול the windpipe produces sound. Ḥull. 21ᵇ; Zeb. 65ᵇ עד שמגיע … לק׳ until he reaches (with his nail) the gullet or the windpipe. Ḥull. 28ᵇ (in Chald. dict.) נבדקיה לק׳ וכ׳ let him examine the windpipe and cut it &c. Men. XI, 6 עשרים … כחצי ק׳ חלול twenty-eight staves shaped like a segment of a hollow reed; a. fr.—Ohol. I, 8 ק׳ = קְנֵה זרוע forearm.—קְנֵה שפה, v. קָמָה.—הושיט בק׳ [to hold forth on a cane,] to treat lightly, consider unimportant. Num. R. s. 8 end דבר … והושיטו לו בק׳ (not והושיטה) something for which that ancestor prostrated himself in prayer (Gen. XXVIII, 20) …, and now comes this man (Aquila) and holds it up to contempt!; Yalk. Gen. 123; Gen. R. s. 70. Ib. את מושיטו לזה בק׳ dost thou make it appear contemptible to this man?; Koh. R. to VII, 8.—Pl. קָנִים, קָנִין. Men. l. c. Ib. סידור ק׳ the arrangement of the staves between the cakes of the show-bread. Kel. XVII, 17, a. fr. מחצלת ק׳ a reed mat. Ex. R. s. 35 (ref. to Ps. LXVIII, 31) חיה הדרה בין הק׳ the beast that dwells among the reeds (Rome, v. Cant. R. to I, 6, quoted above). Gen. R. s. 1 עשיר … לק׳ he is a rich man and needs no reeds (for his house); הרי הוא צריך לקְנֵי המדה he still needs the measuring rods; a. fr. e.g. Genesis 28:20
קָנֶה ²
- ch., v. קָנֵי
קני
- (cmp. Arab. ḳana) to be hot.
- (b. h.)
- 1. to be jealous; to envy. Lam. R. introd. (R. Joḥ. 1) לא קִנֵּאתִי בה I was not jealous of her; מפני מה קִנֵּאתָ לע"ז וכ׳ why art thou jealous of an idol in which there is no reality?; a. e.—Esp. ק׳ לאשתו to suspect one’s wife of unbecoming conduct; to accuse of faithlessness; to warn one’s wife. Sot. I, 1 המְקַנֵּא … מקנא לה על פי שנים he who suspects his wife … must bring charges against her based on a warning given in the presence of two witnesses. Ib. 2 כיצד מקנא לה אומר לה בפני שנים אל תדברי וכ׳ how must he warn her? If he says before two witnesses, do not speak (associate) with that man, and she does so, she is still permitted to him for marital life &c. Tosef. ib. I, 1 [read:] המקנא לאשתו מקנא על פי עד אחד וכ׳ (ed. Zuck. המְקַנֶּה, Var. מקנה) he who wants to proceed against his wife, must bring charges based on a statement of warning by one witness or on his own statement; Sot. 2ᵇ. Ib. 2ᵃ אסור לקַנְּאוֹת it is forbidden to warn one’s wife (in the presence of witnesses). Ib. 3ᵃ מותר לק׳ it is permitted &c. M. Kat. 18ᵇ (ref. to Ps. CVI, 16) שכל … קי׳ לאשתו ממשה every one of them warned his wife in jealousy of Moses. Num. R. s. 9 ע"י איש הוא מקנה אותה וכ׳ he may bring charges on the ground of suspicious conduct towards a man (human being) but not &c. Ib. בית רין מְקַנְּאִין להם וכ׳ (some ed. מְקַנִּין) the court takes proceedings in their (the husbands’) behalf &c.; a. fr. e.g. Psalms 106:16
- 2. to arouse jealousy; to provoke. Meg. 15ᵇ קִנְּאַתּוּ במלך וכ׳ she (by inviting Haman) aroused against him the jealousy of the king and the jealousy of the (other) princes. Num. R. l. c. שהיא מְקַנְּאָה להקב"ה וכ׳ for she provokes the Lord and her husband; a. e.
- to be jealous; to be incensed. Men. 109ᵇ נ׳ בו … בשמעי אחיו Onias was jealous of his brother Shimei. Snh. 105ᵇ בכל אדם מִתְקַנֵּא וכ׳ a man is envious of all except his son and his pupil. Meg. 13ᵃ מִתְקַנְּאָה, v. יָרֵךְ. Ab. Zar. 54ᵇ מפני מה מתקנא בעובדיה וכ׳ why is he jealous of (incensed against) those who worship it (the idol), and is not jealous of (takes no revenge on) itself? Meg. 19ᵃ מה … שנ׳ בכל וכ׳ what reason had Haman to take revenge on all the Jews?; 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 34 distinct written forms H7070 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 H7070, 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
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. 2 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 36 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 38 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 41:5
- Exodus 25:31
- 2 Kings 18:21
- Job 31:22
- Psalms 68:30
- Song of Solomon 4:14
- Isaiah 19:6
- Jeremiah 6:20
- Ezekiel 27:19
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.
