אֲרוֹן
ark
‘ark’ 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 Construct-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
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Both
- Attested as both masculine and feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
25 verses where H727 appears in the Construct state in the Book of 1 Chronicles. 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.
1 Chronicles
- 1 Chronicles 13:3 אֲר֥וֹן n c bs cs and let us bring again the ark of our God to us: for we didn't seek it in the days of Saul.
- 1 Chronicles 13:5 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs So David assembled all Israel together, from the Shihor [the brook] of Egypt even to the entrance of Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim.
- 1 Chronicles 13:6 אֲר֨וֹן n c bs cs David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, [that is], to Kiriath Jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God Yahweh that sits [above] the cherubim, that is called by the Name.
- 1 Chronicles 13:7 אֲר֤וֹן n c bs cs They carried the ark of God on a new cart, [and brought it] out of the house of Abinadab: and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart.
- 1 Chronicles 13:12 אֲר֥וֹן n c bs cs David was afraid of God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?
- 1 Chronicles 13:14 אֲר֨וֹן n c bs cs The ark of God remained with the family of Obed-edom in his house three months: and Yahweh blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that he had.
- 1 Chronicles 15:1 לַֽ/אֲר֣וֹן prep + n c bs cs [David] made him houses in the city of David; and he prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent.
- 1 Chronicles 15:2 אֲר֣וֹן אֲר֧וֹן n c bs cs n c bs cs Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them has Yahweh chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister to him forever.
- 1 Chronicles 15:3 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of Yahweh to its place, which he had prepared for it.
- 1 Chronicles 15:12 אֲר֤וֹן n c bs cs and said to them, You are the heads of the fathers' [houses] of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both you and your brothers, that you may bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel, to [the place] that I have prepared for it.
- 1 Chronicles 15:14 אֲר֥וֹן n c bs cs So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
- 1 Chronicles 15:15 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs The children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of Yahweh.
- 1 Chronicles 15:24 אֲר֣וֹן לָ/אָרֽוֹן n c bs cs prep det + n c bs Shebaniah, and Joshaphat, and Nethanel, and Amasai, and Zechariah, and Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, did blow the trumpets before the ark of God: and Obed-edom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark.
- 1 Chronicles 15:25 אֲר֧וֹן n c bs cs So David, and the elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh out of the house of Obed-edom with joy.
- 1 Chronicles 15:26 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs It happened, when God helped the Levites who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, that they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.
- 1 Chronicles 15:28 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, sounding aloud with psalteries and harps.
- 1 Chronicles 15:29 אֲרוֹן֙ n c bs cs It happened, as the ark of the covenant of Yahweh came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at the window, and saw king David dancing and playing; and she despised him in her heart.
- 1 Chronicles 16:1 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs They brought in the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it: and they offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings before God.
- 1 Chronicles 16:4 אֲר֧וֹן n c bs cs He appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of Yahweh, and to celebrate and to thank and praise Yahweh, the God of Israel:
- 1 Chronicles 16:6 אֲר֥וֹן n c bs cs and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets continually, before the ark of the covenant of God.
- 1 Chronicles 16:37 אֲר֣וֹן הָ/אָר֛וֹן n c bs cs ptcl def.art + n c bs So he left there, before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, Asaph and his brothers, to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required;
- 1 Chronicles 17:1 וַ/אֲר֥וֹן conj + n c bs cs It happened, when David lived in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of Yahweh [dwells] under curtains.
- 1 Chronicles 22:19 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs Now set your heart and your soul to seek after Yahweh your God; arise therefore, and build the sanctuary of Yahweh God, to bring the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of Yahweh.
- 1 Chronicles 28:2 לַ/אֲר֣וֹן prep + n c bs cs Then David the king stood up on his feet, and said, Hear me, my brothers, and my people: as for me, it was in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and for the footstool of our God; and I had made ready for the building.
- 1 Chronicles 28:18 אֲר֥וֹן n c bs cs and for the altar of incense refined gold by weight; and gold for the pattern of the chariot, [even] the cherubim, that spread out [their wings], and covered the ark of the covenant of Yahweh.
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 ארון centers on the idea of “ark.” Its English rendering has broadened — “ark” classically, “box of” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 174 verses — common. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 50:26. The lexicon spreads it across several senses; see its full sense range. Dig into 174-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H727 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 →
- 174
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 174 distinct verses.
- 15 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 15 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #236
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 236 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 174 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 1 Samuel 33 verses 19%
- 1 Chronicles 31 verses 18%
- Joshua 25 verses 14%
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 174 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 91 verses · 52%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 48 verses · 28%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 35 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: Ark 168×, Chest 6×, Thence the ark 3×
- American Standard Version: Ark 157×, Chest 5×, Came to pass 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Ark 181×, Chest 6×, It 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Box of 140×, Box 54×, Chest 4×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H727 across 202 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 21 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 H727 across 202 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 30 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 H727 across 195 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 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 7 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H727 across 208 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.
12 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 12 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. chest, for money-offerings 2 K 12:10, 11 2 Ch 24:8, 10, 11(×2). e.g. 2 Kings 12:10
- 2. sarcophagus, mummy-case, of Joseph Gn 50:26 (E). e.g. Genesis 50:26
- 3. chest, ark in tabernacle & temple, containing tables of law, with cherubim above, the especially seat of י׳ among his people, only Hex (71 times) S (61 times) K (12 times) & Ch (48 times) + Ju 20:27 Je 3:16 ψ 132:8; used alone & in various combinations (cf. SeyringZAW 1891, 114 f.). e.g. Judges 20:27
- a. indef. אֲרוֹן עֲצֵי שִׁטִּים an ark of shittim-wood Ex 25:10; Dt 10:3 cf. v 1. e.g. Exodus 25:10
- b. def. הָא׳ Ex 25:14 + 54 times (Hex P, except Jos JE; S K Ch). e.g. Exodus 25:14
- c. א׳ יהוה Jos 4:11 + 32 times Jos (JED) S K Ch. e.g. Joshua 4:11
- d. א׳ אֱלֹהִים †1 S 3:3; 4:11; א׳ הָאֱלֹהִים 1 S 4:13 + 32 times S Ch (but 1 S 14:18(×2) read הָאֵפוֹד 𝔊 We Dr), cf. א׳ אֱלֹהֵינוּ †1 Ch 13:3. e.g. 1 Samuel 3:3
- e. א׳ אלהי יִשְׂרָאֵל 1 S 5:7 + 6 times S, term used only by Philistines; א׳ יהוה אלהי יִשְׂרָאֵל †1 Ch 15:12, 14; א׳ יהוה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם †Jos 4:5 (JE); א׳ אֲדֹנָי יהוה †1 K 2:26; א׳ יהוה אֲדוֹן כָּל־הָאָרֶץ †Jos 3:13 (JED) cf. אדון כל־הארץ [הברית] א׳ v 11, where הברית (c. art. is prob. interpol., v. Di, only once & late the long phrase א׳ האלהים יהוה יוֹשֵׁב הַכְּרוּבִים אֲשֶׁר נִקְרָא־שֵׁם 1 Ch 13:6. e.g. 1 Samuel 5:7
- f. in combination with בְּרִית, largely D & under D’s influence; ארון הַבְּרִית ark of the covenant †Jos 3:6(×2), 8; 4:9; 6:6 (all JED); א׳ בְּרִית יהוה Nu 10:33; 14:44 (both J) Dt 10:8; 31:9, 25; Jos 4:7, 18; 6:8; 8:33 Je 3:16 + 17 times S K Ch; once longer א׳ בְּרִית י׳ צְבָאוֹת ישֵׁב הַכְּרֻבִים †1 S 4:4; also א׳ בְּרִית הָאֱלֹהִים †Ju 20:27; 1 S 4:4; 2 S 15:24; 1 Ch 16:6; & א׳ בְּרִית י׳ אלהיכם Dt 31:26 Jos 3:3. e.g. Joshua 3:6
- g. אֲרוֹן הָעֵדוּת ark of the testimony, only in P, corresponding to א׳ בְּרִית (cf. Di on Ex 25:16), Ex 25:22 + 8 times Ex, †Nu 4:5; 7:89 Jos 4:16. e.g. Exodus 25:16
- h. †א׳ הַקֹּדֶשׁ 2 Ch 35:3. e.g. 2 Chronicles 35:3
- i. א׳ עֻזֶּךָ֑ the ark of thy strength 2 Ch 6:41 ψ 132:8.—(Cf. also tables given by Seyringl.c. & his theory as to earliest designation of ark.) e.g. 2 Chronicles 6:41
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
c. art. הָאָרוֹן, הָאָרֹן203 n.m. Ex 35, 12 (f. 1 S 4, 17; 2 Ch 8, 11) chest, ark (Ph. ארן, sarcophagus, Assyrian êrênu (& êrû) chest ZimBP 6, 22, Arabic إِرَانٌ chest, so Aramaic ܐܰܪܘܽܢܳܐ also Nab. ארנא, Vog p. 102, Ph. Mish. also pl. ארונות)—only sg.; abs. †אֲרוֹן 2 K 12:10 = 2 Ch 24:8; c. art. הָאָרוֹן Dt 10:2 + always except Ex Lv Nu where הָאָרֹן (Ex 25:14(×2) + 13 times Ex, Lv 16:2 Nu 3:31; 10:35); cstr. אֲרוֹן Ex 25:10 +, †אֲרֹן Ex 30:6 Nu 4:5; 7:89;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from ארה (ʼârâh) (H717) — to pluck.
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.
אָרוֹן
- c. (b. h.; [joined together,] chest, box, coffin, freq. (= אֲרוֹן הַקּוֹדֶשׁ) the Holy Ark, in the tabernacle and the Temple, or in Synagogues. Yoma V, 1 הגיע לא׳ reached the place where the Ark stood during the First Temple. Y. Ber. IV, 8ᶜ top; Gen. R. s. 55 (allegorical etymologies).—Keth. 104ᵃ א׳ הקודש (figuratively) a good and learned man’s soul; v. אֶרְאֵל.—Kel. XII, 5 א׳ של גרוסות the grits-dealer’s chest. Y. Kil. IX, 32ᵇ top; Gen. R. s. 100 אֲרוֹנִי נקובה (נקופה) וכ׳ ותהא let my coffin be perforated at the bottom. Snh. 98ᵇ אין לך כל א׳ וא׳ וכ׳ there is no coffin in Palestine in which the Median horses do not eat straw (being used as cribs); a. fr.—Pl. אֲרוֹנוֹת. Sot. 13ᵃ; a. fr. [Y. Keth. VI, 30ᵈ bot. וארון, v. אֲרִי I.]
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 53 distinct written forms H727 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 H727, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 170 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 174 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 50:26
- Exodus 25:10
- Leviticus 16:2
- Numbers 3:31
- Deuteronomy 10:1
- Joshua 3:3
- Judges 20:27
- 1 Samuel 3:3
- 2 Samuel 6:2
- 1 Kings 2:26
- 2 Kings 12:9
- 1 Chronicles 6:31
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.
