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.
19 verses where H727 appears in the Construct state in the Book of Joshua. 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.
Joshua
- Joshua 3:3 אֲר֤וֹן n c bs cs and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of Yahweh your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place, and go after it.
- Joshua 3:6 אֲר֣וֹן אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs n c bs cs Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass over before the people. They took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.
- Joshua 3:8 אֲרֽוֹן n c bs cs You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When you are come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.
- Joshua 3:11 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passes over before you into the Jordan.
- Joshua 3:13 אֲר֨וֹן n c bs cs It shall come to pass, when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of Yahweh, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, even the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand in one heap.
- Joshua 4:5 אֲר֧וֹן n c bs cs and Joshua said to them, Pass over before the ark of Yahweh your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up every man of you a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;
- Joshua 4:7 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs then you shall tell them, Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever.
- Joshua 4:9 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there to this day.
- Joshua 4:11 אֲרוֹן n c bs cs It happened, when all the people had completely passed over, that the ark of Yahweh passed over, with the priests, in the presence of the people.
- Joshua 4:16 אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony, that they come up out of the Jordan.
- Joshua 4:18 אֲר֤וֹן n c bs cs It happened, when the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh were come up out of the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up to the dry ground, that the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks, as before.
- Joshua 6:6 אֲר֣וֹן אֲר֥וֹן n c bs cs n c bs cs Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of Yahweh.
- Joshua 6:7 אֲר֥וֹן n c bs cs They said to the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let the armed men pass on before the ark of Yahweh.
- Joshua 6:8 וַֽ/אֲרוֹן֙ conj + n c bs cs It was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before Yahweh passed on, and blew the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of Yahweh followed them.
- Joshua 6:11 אֲרוֹן n c bs cs So he caused the ark of Yahweh to compass the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp.
- Joshua 6:12 אֲר֥וֹן n c bs cs Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of Yahweh.
- Joshua 6:13 אֲר֣וֹן אֲר֣וֹן n c bs cs n c bs cs The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of Yahweh went on continually, and blew the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; and the rearward came after the ark of Yahweh, [the priests] blowing the trumpets as they went.
- Joshua 7:6 אֲר֤וֹן n c bs cs Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Yahweh until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.
- Joshua 8:33 לָ/אָר֡וֹן אֲר֣וֹן prep det + n c bs n c bs cs All Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, as well the foreigner as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.
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.
