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).
20 verses where H776 appears in the Construct state in the Book of 2 Kings. 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.
2 Kings
- 2 Kings 5:2 מֵ/אֶ֥רֶץ prep + n c bs cs The Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman's wife.
- 2 Kings 5:4 מֵ/אֶ֥רֶץ prep + n c bs cs One went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maiden who is of the land of Israel.
- 2 Kings 6:23 בְּ/אֶ֥רֶץ prep + n c bs cs He prepared great provision for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. The bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.
- 2 Kings 8:2 בְּ/אֶֽרֶץ prep + n c bs cs The woman arose, and did according to the word of the man of God; and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.
- 2 Kings 8:3 מֵ/אֶ֣רֶץ prep + n c bs cs It happened at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Philistines: and she went forth to cry to the king for her house and for her land.
- 2 Kings 10:33 אֶ֣רֶץ n c bs cs from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the valley of the Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.
- 2 Kings 15:29 אֶ֣רֶץ n c bs cs In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel Beth Maacah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria.
- 2 Kings 17:7 מֵ/אֶ֣רֶץ prep + n c bs cs It was so, because the children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
- 2 Kings 17:36 מֵ/אֶ֧רֶץ prep + n c bs cs but Yahweh, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, him shall you fear, and to him shall you bow yourselves, and to him shall you sacrifice:
- 2 Kings 18:32 אֶ֣רֶץ כְּ/אַרְצְ/כֶ֗ם אֶרֶץ֩ אֶ֧רֶץ אֶ֣רֶץ n c bs prep + n c bs cs + sfx pers 2mp n c bs cs n c bs cs n c bs cs Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and of honey, that you may live, and not die: and don't listen to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying, Yahweh will deliver us.
- 2 Kings 18:33 אַרְצ֑/וֹ n c bs cs + sfx pers 3ms Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
- 2 Kings 18:35 הָֽ/אֲרָצ֔וֹת אַרְצָ֖/ם ptcl def.art + n c bp n c bs cs + sfx pers 3mp Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
- 2 Kings 19:7 לְ/אַרְצ֑/וֹ בְּ/אַרְצֽ/וֹ prep + n c bs cs + sfx pers 3ms prep + n c bs cs + sfx pers 3ms Behold, I will put a spirit in him, and he shall hear news, and shall return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.
- 2 Kings 19:17 אַרְצָֽ/ם n c bs cs + sfx pers 3mp Of a truth, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
- 2 Kings 19:37 אֶ֣רֶץ n c bs cs It happened, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Esar Haddon his son reigned in his place.
- 2 Kings 23:24 בְּ/אֶ֤רֶץ prep + n c bs cs Moreover those who had familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the teraphim, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might confirm the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of Yahweh.
- 2 Kings 23:33 בְּ/אֶ֣רֶץ הָ/אָ֔רֶץ prep + n c bs cs ptcl def.art + n c bs Pharaoh Necoh put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of one hundred talents of silver, and a talent of gold.
- 2 Kings 24:7 מֵֽ/אַרְצ֑/וֹ prep + n c bs cs + sfx pers 3ms The king of Egypt didn't come again out of his land any more; for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt to the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt.
- 2 Kings 25:21 בְּ/אֶ֣רֶץ prep + n c bs cs The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.
- 2 Kings 25:22 בְּ/אֶ֣רֶץ prep + n c bs cs As for the people who were left in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, even over them he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, governor.
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.
