אֶ֫רֶץ
land
‘land’ is one of 4 main senses 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).
26 verses where H776 appears in the Absolute 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 1:10 בָּ/אָֽרֶץ prep det + n c bs Cush became the father of Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
- 1 Chronicles 1:19 הָ/אָ֔רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.
- 1 Chronicles 4:40 וְ/הָ/אָ֨רֶץ֙ conj + ptcl def.art + n c bs They found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable; for those who lived there before were of Ham.
- 1 Chronicles 5:23 בָּ/אָ֑רֶץ prep det + n c bs The children of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the land: they increased from Bashan to Baal Hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon.
- 1 Chronicles 5:25 הָ/אָ֔רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs They trespassed against the God of their fathers, and played the prostitute after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God destroyed before them.
- 1 Chronicles 7:21 בָּ/אָ֔רֶץ prep det + n c bs and Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer, and Elead, whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to take away their cattle.
- 1 Chronicles 11:4 הָ/אָֽרֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (the same is Jebus); and the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there.
- 1 Chronicles 14:17 הָֽ/אֲרָצ֑וֹת ptcl def.art + n c bp The fame of David went out into all lands; and Yahweh brought the fear of him on all nations.
- 1 Chronicles 16:14 הָ/אָ֖רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs He is Yahweh our God; His judgments are in all the earth.
- 1 Chronicles 16:23 הָ/אָ֔רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs Sing to Yahweh, all the earth; Show forth his salvation from day to day.
- 1 Chronicles 16:30 הָ/אָ֔רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs Tremble before him, all the earth: The world also is established that it can't be moved.
- 1 Chronicles 16:31 הָ/אָ֔רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; Let them say among the nations, Yahweh reigns.
- 1 Chronicles 16:33 הָ/אָֽרֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before Yahweh; For he comes to judge the earth.
- 1 Chronicles 17:8 בָּ/אָֽרֶץ prep det + n c bs and I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a name, like the name of the great ones who are in the earth.
- 1 Chronicles 17:21 בָּ/אָ֑רֶץ prep det + n c bs What one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, to make you a name by great and awesome things, in driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeem out of Egypt?
- 1 Chronicles 19:3 הָ/אָ֔רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Think you that David does honor your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Aren't his servants come to you to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land?
- 1 Chronicles 21:12 בָּ/אָ֔רֶץ prep det + n c bs either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Yahweh destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.
- 1 Chronicles 21:16 הָ/אָ֨רֶץ֙ ptcl def.art + n c bs David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
- 1 Chronicles 21:21 אָֽרְצָ/ה n c bs + sfx dem As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
- 1 Chronicles 22:5 הָ֣/אֲרָצ֔וֹת ptcl def.art + n c bp David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built for Yahweh must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.
- 1 Chronicles 22:8 אַ֖רְצָ/ה n c bs + sfx dem But the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, You have shed blood abundantly, and have made great wars: you shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.
- 1 Chronicles 22:18 הָ/אָ֔רֶץ הָ/אָ֛רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs ptcl def.art + n c bs Isn't Yahweh your God with you? Hasn't he given you rest on every side? for he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before Yahweh, and before his people.
- 1 Chronicles 28:8 הָ/אָ֣רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of Yahweh, and in the audience of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of Yahweh your God; that you may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.
- 1 Chronicles 29:11 וּ/בָ/אָ֑רֶץ conj + prep det + n c bs Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, Yahweh, and you are exalted as head above all.
- 1 Chronicles 29:15 הָ/אָ֖רֶץ ptcl def.art + n c bs For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no abiding.
- 1 Chronicles 29:30 הָ/אֲרָצֽוֹת ptcl def.art + n c bp with all his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.
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, ארץ (ʼerets) means “land.” Carrying more than one sense, it rewards its full sense range. Spanning 2,190 verses in 39 books, it ranks among the most common words of the Hebrew Bible. Scripture first uses it in Genesis 1:1. From the same root come ארע and ארצא. See the sense tree, 2,190-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H776 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 →
- 2,190
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 2,190 distinct verses.
- 39 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 39 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #17
- by frequency
- Top 25 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 17 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 2,190 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 2,190 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 1,038 verses · 47%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 705 verses · 32%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 447 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: Land 1,210×, Earth 543×, Ground 82×
- American Standard Version: Land 1,137×, Earth 505×, Ground 73×
- Berean Standard Bible: Land 1,415×, Earth 544×, Ground 117×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Land 994×, Earth 596×, Land of 491×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H776 across 2,504 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 180 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 H776 across 2,502 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 304 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 H776 across 2,375 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 82 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 108 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H776 across 2,463 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 60 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
18 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 18 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.
- a. earth, whole earth (opp. to a part) Gn 18:18, 25; 22:18 (= הָאֲדָמָה 12:3) Je 25:26, 29, 30; 26:6 Is 37:16, 20 = 2 K 19:15, 19 Zc 4:10, 14 +. e.g. Genesis 18:18
- b. earth, opp. to heaven, sky Gn 1:2 Ex 20:4 Dt 5:8; 30:19 Ju 5:4 La 2:1 Is 37:16 = 2 K 19:15 ψ 146:6 1 Ch 21:16; 29:11 2 Ch 2:11 +; as permanent Ec 1:4; built on foundations, or pillars 1 S 2:8 ψ 104:5 Jb 38:4 Is 48:13; 51:13, 16 cf. also Is 24:18 ψ 82:5; firm, so that its shaking is something terrible, & token of terrible power 1 S 14:5 2 S 22:8 = ψ 18:8 Jb 9:6 cf. ψ 46:3 & v 7; so also Am 8:8 Is 2:19, 21; 24:18, 19, 20 ψ 60:4; 77:19; 99:1; 114:7; as hung on nothing Jb 26:7; with waters under it Ex 20:4 = Dt 5:8 cf. Gn 7:11; personified, especially as addressed, called to witness, etc. Dt 32:1 Je 6:19; 22:29 Is 1:2 Mi 1:2 Jb 16:18. e.g. Genesis 1:2
- c. earth = inhabitants of earth Gn 6:11; 11:1 1 K 2:2; 10:24 ψ 33:8; 66:4 + cf. תֵּבֵל א׳ Pr 8:31 Jb 37:12. e.g. Genesis 6:11
- 2. land =
- a. country, territory, א׳ שִׁנְעָר Gn 10:10, א׳ מִצְרַיִם 21:21; cf. also 10:11; 11:28, 31; 13:10; 47:6, 27; 50:8 Is 7:18; 23:1, 13; 27:13 ψ 78:12 Je 25:20 1 Ch 1:43; personif. Is 62:4 Ec 10:16, 17. e.g. Genesis 10:10
- b. district, region Gn 19:28; 22:2 Jos 11:3 ψ 42:7. e.g. Genesis 19:28
- c. tribal territory Dt 34:2 Ju 21:21 1 S 9:4, 16; 13:7 1 K 15:20 Is 8:23; and still smaller territories 1 S 9:4, 5. e.g. Deuteronomy 34:2
- d. piece of ground Gn 23:15. e.g. Genesis 23:15
- e. specif. land of Canaan, or Israel Gn 11:31; 12:1, 5, 6, 7; 31:3 Lv 14:34 Dt 17:14; 18:9 2 K 5:2, 4 +; especially obj. of יָרַשׁ possess Dt 3:20 + often Dt ψ al.; so after נָחַל Jos 19:49 +; נָתַן Dt 1:21 +. f. = inhabitants of land Lv 19:29 Ez 14:13 + cf. Dt 24:4 Zc 12:12 etc. g. used even of Sheʾôl Jb 10:21, 22 (cf. Assyrian irṣit la târat, land without return, in Descent of Ishtar, v. Jr 10.65); v. also ψ 139:15 Is 44:23. e.g. Genesis 11:31
- 3.
- a. ground, surface of ground = אֲדָמָה q.v. Gn 1:26, 30; 18:2; 33:3; 38:9 Ex 4:3; 16:14 Ru 2:10 1 S 5:4 + very often in S. e.g. Genesis 1:26
- b. soil, as productive = אֲדָמָה Gn 1:11, 12 Lv 19:9; 25:19; 26:4 cf. Nu 14:7, 8 Is 36:17 = 2 K 18:32 ψ 72:6, 16; 107:34, 35 Ezr 9:12 Ne 9:35. e.g. Genesis 1:11
- 4. אֶרֶץ in phrases:
- a. people of the land עַם־הָא׳ of non-Israelites Gn 23:7, 12, 13 (P) Nu 14:9 (JE); as well as Isr. Lv 20:4 (H) 2 K 15:5; 16:15; 21:24(×2); especially common people, opp. officials, princes Lv 4:27 (P) Ez 7:27 2 K 11:18, 19. e.g. Genesis 23:7
- b. in measurements of distance, כִּבְרַת הָא׳ the space or distance of country (v. כּברה) Gn 35:16, so כִּבְרַת א׳ some distance Gn 48:7 2 K 5:19. e.g. Genesis 35:16
- c. אֶרֶץ הַמִּישׁוֹר the country of the plain, level or plain country Dt 4:33 Je 48:21; א׳ מִישׁוֹר fig. ψ 143:10 (but read אֹרַח 𝔖 Bi Gr Che, cf. ψ 27:11). e.g. Deuteronomy 4:33
- d. א׳חַיִּים land of the living ψ 27:13; א׳ הַחַיִּים ψ 142:6 +. e.g. Psalms 27:13
- e. קְצֵה הָא׳ end(s) of the earth Is 42:10; 43:6 (‖ רָחוֹק) ψ 135:7 Pr 17:24, so אַפְסֵי א׳ Pr 30:4 +; קְצוֹת הָא׳ Is 40:28; 41:5, 9. e.g. Isaiah 42:10
- 5. pl. אֲרָצוֹת is almost wholly late, Je 16:15 + 6 times Je; 23 times Ez; Is 36:20; 37:11 = 2 K 18:35; 19:11 (Is 37:18 read הַגּוֹיִם v. Che Di & cf. 2 K 19:17); 22 times Chr; Dn 9:7; 11:40, 42; ψ 105:44; 106:27; 107:3; 116:9; besides these only P Gn 10:5, 20, 31 Lv 26:36, 39, except Gn 26:3, 4 (JR) 41:54 (JE); it denotes lands, countries, often in contrast to Canaan, lands of the nations, etc., v. especially abs. Ez 20:32; 22:4; = the various petty divisions of Canaan afterward united under Israel’s control Gn 26:3, 4, cf. 1 Ch 13:2 אַרְצוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל, 2 Ch 11:23 אַרְצוֹת יְהוּדָה. e.g. Jeremiah 16:15
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.f. Gn 10:11 & (seld.) m. Ez 21:24 earth, land (Ph. MI ארץ, Assyrian irṣitu COTGloss, Arabic أَرْضٌ, Sab. ארץֿ e.g. Os 9 DHMZMG 1875, 594, 614; Sem. Sprachf. 12, cf. PräBAS i. 374 n., Aramaic אֲרַע, ܐܰܪܥܳܐ )—א׳ abs. Gn 1:24 +; cstr. 2:11 +; אָ֑רֶץ 1:10 +; c. art. always הָאָ֫רֶץ 1:11 +; c. ה—ָloc. אַ֫רְצָה 11:31 +, (poet. = אָרֶץ Jb 34:13; cf. 1 S 25:23 1 K 1:31); sf. אַרְצִי 20:15 + אַרְצְךָ (אַרְצֶ֑ךָ) 12:1 +, etc.; pl. אֲרָצוֹת Je 28:8 + 65 times; cstr. אַרְצוֹת Ez 39:27 + 6 times; sf. אַרְצֹתָם Gn 10:5 + 2 times;—
— 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 probably meaning to be firm
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.
אֶרֶץ
- רצץ; Ch. a. oth. dial. ארע fr. רעע to press together, stamp—from the rugged appearance of the surface after the subsidence of the waters) earth, dry land; country, land, field (opp. to town). Ex. R. s. 13 … threw dust upon the waters ונעשה א׳ and earth (crust) was formed.—א׳ ישראל (abbr. א"י) Palestine, opp. חוצה לָאָ׳, or מדינת הים foreign countries, or distant countries. Gitt. I, 2. Ib. 6ᵃ; a. fr.—הָאָרֶץ Palestine, Ḥull. 16ᵇ משנכנסו לא׳ since entering Palestine (under Joshua); a. fr.—עם הָאָ׳ (abbr. ע"ה) country people, hence illiterate, coarse, unrefined (often applied to an individual); pl. עַמֵּי הא׳, opp. תלמיד חכם. Sabb. 63ᵃ. Ḥull. 92ᵃ; a. v. fr.—Esp. ע"ה those not observing certain religious customs regarding tithes, levitical cleanness &c., opp. חָבֵר q. v. Dem. I, 2; a. fr.—Pl. אֲרָצוֹת. Shebi. IX, 2 שלש א׳ וכ׳ Palestine is divided into three countries with reference to the laws of the Sabbath year. Keth. 111ᵃ; a. e., v. עִיסָה; 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 297 distinct written forms H776 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; 237 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H776, 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 2,063 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 2,190 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 1:1
- Exodus 1:7
- Leviticus 4:27
- Numbers 1:1
- Deuteronomy 1:5
- Joshua 1:2
- Judges 1:2
- Ruth 1:1
- 1 Samuel 2:8
- 2 Samuel 1:2
- 1 Kings 1:23
- 2 Kings 2:15
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.
