רֶ֫קֶם
Rekem
BDB lists 5 entries for ‘Rekem’ 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
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H7552 appears — 6 distinct verses across 3 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.
Numbers 1 verse
Joshua 2 verses
- Joshua 13:21 רֶ֨קֶם֙ n Proper and all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses struck with the chiefs of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who lived in the land.
- Joshua 18:27 וְ/רֶ֥קֶם conj + n Proper and Rekem, and Irpeel, and Taralah,
1 Chronicles 3 verses
- 1 Chronicles 2:43 וְ/רֶ֥קֶם conj + n Proper The sons of Hebron: Korah, and Tappuah, and Rekem, and Shema.
- 1 Chronicles 2:44 וְ/רֶ֖קֶם conj + n Proper Shema became the father of Raham, the father of Jorkeam; and Rekem became the father of Shammai.
- 1 Chronicles 7:16 וָ/רָֽקֶם conj + n Proper Maacah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she named him Peresh; and the name of his brother was Sheresh; and his sons were Ulam and Rakem.
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, רקם (Reqem) means “Rekem.” The word gravitates to 1 Chronicles (50%), then Joshua and Numbers. It appears 6 verses across 3 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its uncommon vocabulary. First canonically at Numbers 31:8, it enters the text early. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7552 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 →
- 6
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 6 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #3,040
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 3,040 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 6 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- 1 Chronicles 3 verses 50%
- Joshua 2 verses 33%
- Numbers 1 verse 17%
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 6 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 3 verses · 50%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 verses · 33%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 17%
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: Rekem 5×
- American Standard Version: Rekem 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Rekem 6×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Rekem 5×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7552 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7552 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H7552 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7552 across 6 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears 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. m.
- a. a king of Midian Nu 31:8 (Ροκομ), Jos 13:21 (Ροβοκ, A Ροκομ, 𝔊 Οροκομ). e.g. Numbers 31:8
- b. a ‘son’ of Hebron 1 Ch 2:43, 44, Ρεκομ, Ροκομ, Ρωκημ. e.g. 1 Chronicles 2:43
- c. name in Gilead 1 Ch 7:16, 𝔊L Ρακαμ. e.g. 1 Chronicles 7:16
- 2. loc. in Benj., Jos 18:27, Νακαν, A 𝔊L Ρεκεμ[ν]. e.g. Joshua 18:27
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
Derived from רקם (râqam) (H7551) — to variegate.
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.
רָקַם
- (b. h.) to variegate, embroider. Yoma 72ᵇ רוֹקְמִין, v. חָשַׁב. Ib. רוֹקֵם מעשה וכ׳ the embroiderer’s is needle work, therefore it has only one face; a. e.
- same, trnsf. (v. Ps. CXXXIX, 15) to form the limbs of an embryo, shape. Lev. R. s. 29, beg.; Pesik. R. s. 46 שלישית ביום צבר … רִיקְּמוֹ at three hours of the day he gathered his (Adam’s) dust, at four he kneaded him, at five he shaped him; Midr. Till. to Ps. XCII חמשית … ששית רקמו at five he made him a shapeless body, at six he articulated him. Y. Bets. I, 60ᵃ בצים שרִיקֵּימוּ גוזלים שלא העלו עליהן וכ׳ (not העליהן) eggs which developed chicks without a formation of wings. Ḥull. 64ᵃ אם רִיקְּמָה וניקבה if the egg had developed a distinct embryo, and was perforated; a. e.—Part. pass. מְרוּקָּם; f. מְרוּקֶּמֶת. Esth. R. to III, 1 עשה לו צלם מר׳ וכ׳ he (Haman) made himself an image embroidered on his garment over his breast. Nidd. III, 3 (24ᵇ) ואם היה מר׳ and if the fœtus was articulated. Y. ib. 50ᵈ top, v. רָשׁוֹן. Tosef. ib. IV, 12. Ḥull. IX, 6 (126ᵇ) ביצת השרץ המר׳ the egg of a creeping thing (serpent &c.) in a developed state; a. e. e.g. Psalms 139:15
רֶקֶם I
- (preced.) embroidery.—Pl. רְקָמִים, constr. רִקְמֵי, רִי׳. Ab. Zar. 24ᵇ (in an apostrophe to the Ark of the Covenant) המחושקת בר׳ זהב who art lovely in gold-embroidered garments (gold-plated); Gen. R. s. 54; Yalk. Sam. 103; Midr. Sam. ch. XII כרומי (corr. acc.).
רֶקֶם II
- (b. h.) pr. n. pl. Rekem, in Benjamin. Targ. Josh. XVIII, 27.
רְקָם I
- ) pr. n. pl. R’ḳam (or Reḳem);
- 1. also ר׳ דחגרא Sela (Petra) in Edom (v. Hildesh. Beitr. p. 52 sq.) Targ. Gen. XIV, 7 (Y. ed. Vien. רֵיקָם; h. text קדש). Ib. XX, 1; a. e.—Gitt. I, 1 המביא מן הר׳ ומן החגר if a messenger brings a letter of divorce from the district of R. or of Ḥagar. Nidd. VIII, 3; a. e.—Sifré Deut. 51 ר׳ תחגרא (read: דחגרא); Yalk. ib. 874 רגם דח׳; Tosef. Shebi. IV, 11 ed. Zuck. (Var. ורכה דדוגרא, corr. acc.).
- 2. רְקַם גֵּיאָה R’ḳam Geah = Kadesh Barnea. Targ. Num. XXXIV, 4. Targ. Josh. XV, 3; a. e.—Sifré l. c.; Yalk. l. c. (not גאוה); Tosef. l. c. (Var. נאה, corr. acc.); Y. Shebi. V, 36ᶜ ר׳ דגועה.
רְקָם II
- = h. רֶקֶם I, embroidered garment. Targ. Ez. XXVII, 16 (h. text רקמה).
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 4 distinct written forms H7552 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.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| וְ/רֶ֥קֶם | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 2:43 | 2 |
| רֶ֨קֶם֙ | Noun, Proper | Joshua 13:21 | 2 |
| וְ/רֶ֖קֶם | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 2:44 | 1 |
| וָ/רָֽקֶם | Noun, Proper | 1 Chronicles 7:16 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7552, 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.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Rekem). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
Embroidered; variegated. (1.) One of the five Midianite kings whom the Israelites destroyed (Num. 31:8).
(2.) One of the sons of Hebron (1 Chr. 2:43, 44).
(3.) A town of Benjamin (Josh. 18:27).
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
one of the towns of the allotment of Benjamin. (Joshua 18:27) Its existing site is unknown.
(variegation).
+ One of the five kings or chieftains of Midian slain by the Israelites. (Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:21) + One of the four sons of Hebron, and father of Shammai. (1 Chronicles 2:43,44)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
vain pictures; divers picture
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 6 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 6 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
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.
