שָׂנֵא
to hate
‘to hate’ is one of 4 main senses 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
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘human’
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘personal and national’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
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).
Person
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H8130 appears in the Book of Joshua — 1 distinct verse. 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
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.
שנא (sânêʼ) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to hate.” Debuting at Genesis 24:60, it then recurs through the corpus. With 139 verses in 23 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. It concentrates in Psalms, which alone accounts for 29% of its uses. Read the stem: it spans 3 stems, including Qal and Niphal. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H8130 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 →
- 139
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 139 distinct verses.
- 23 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 23 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #304
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 304 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 139 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Psalms 40 verses 29%
- Proverbs 25 verses 18%
- Deuteronomy 18 verses 13%
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 139 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 77 verses · 55%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 32 verses · 23%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 30 verses · 22%
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: Hate 26×, Hated 17×, Hateth 9×
- American Standard Version: Hate 18×, Hated 17×, I hate 11×
- Berean Standard Bible: Hate 19×, I hate 11×, Hate you 9×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Hate 16×, I hate 11×, Hates 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H8130 across 146 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 44 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 H8130 across 145 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 55 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 H8130 across 143 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 38 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 3 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H8130 across 162 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 41 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
11 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each.
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 11 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.
Qal
- Pf. 3 ms. שׂ׳ Dt 12:31 +, sf. שְׂנֵאָהּ 2 S 13:15 +; 2 ms. שָׂנֵאתָ ψ 5:6 +, sf. שְׂנֵאתַ֫נִי Ju 14:16, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. יִשְׂנָא Pr 13:5; 26:28, sf. יִשְׂנָאֶ֑ךָּ 9:8, etc.; Imv. mpl. שִׂנְאוּ Am 5:15 ψ 97:10; Inf. abs. שָׂנֹא Ju 15:2; cstr. שְׂנֹא Gn 37:5 +, שְׂנֹאת Pr 8:13; Pt. act. שֹׂנֵא Dt 4:42 +, שֹׂנַאֲךָ Ex 23:5 Pr 25:21; pl. cstr. שֹׂנְאֵי Ex 18:21 +, etc.; pass. fs. שְׂנוּאָה Gn 29:31 +; mpl. cstr. שְׂנֻאֵי 2 S 5:8 Qr (> Kt שָֽׂנְאוּ);—hate (often opp. אָהֵב): e.g. Deuteronomy 12:31
- 1. human;
- a. c. acc. pers. Gn 26:27 (J), 37:5, 8 (E), Ju 11:7; 2 S 13:22; Am 5:10 (‖ תֵּעֵב) + 17 times (evil-doers †ψ 26:5; 31:7; 139:21), + (obj. wife) Ju 14:16; 15:2(×2); + pt. pass., of wife, †Gn 29:31(×2) (J), Dt 21:15(×2), 16, 17, cf. Pr 30:23; fig. of Zion Is 60:15 (+ עֲזוּבָה); specif. of sexual revulsion †2 S 13:15(×2) (+ acc. cogn.), Dt 22:13, 16; 24:3; so, obj. man (of Jerus. under fig. of harlot) †Ez 16:37; pass. שְׂנֻאֵי נֶפֶשׁ דָּוִד 2 S 5:8 (but v. obscure); reflex. (acc. נַפְשׁוֹ) †Pr 29:24, abs. †Ec 3:8. e.g. Genesis 26:27
- b. c. acc. rei, Ez 35:6 (but read בְּדָם אָשַׁמְתָּ 𝔊 𝔖 Co Berthol Toy), Ec 2:17, 18, especially evil Ex 18:21 (E), Mi 3:2 ψ 45:7 + 10 times, virtue, etc. Mi 3:2 Pr 1:22 + 4 times e.g. Ezekiel 35:6
- 2. subj. י׳; obj. perverse Isr. †Am 6:8 (its palaces), Ho 9:15 Je 12:8; wickedness ψ 5:6; 11:5; idolatry and evil Am 5:21 Is 1:14; 61:8; Je 44:4; Mal 2:16 + 5 times e.g. Amos 6:8
- 3. Pt.act.54 as adj. Is 66:5 (as vb. c. 1 s. pron. 61:8, 2 supr.); usually subst., Pr 13:24 one hating his son (opp. אֹהֵב); elsewhere = enemy, foe (usually cstr. or c. sf.), sg. and pl. (often ‖ אֹיֵב, sometimes opp. אֹהֵב): foe of man Ex 23:5 (E), Gn 24:60 (J), Lv 26:17 (H) +, nation Ex 1:10 (E), Est 9:1, 5, 16 +, abs. Pr 26:24; 27:6, (c. 31 times in all); + לֹא שֹׂנֵא c. ל pers., a no-hater to one Dt 4:42; 19:4, 6; Jos 20:5, and (without לֹא) Dt 19:11; foe of good Mi 3:2, cf. Jb 34:17 + 3 times, of evil †Ex 18:21; Pr 28:1, cf. 15:27; of suretyship †11:15 (i.e. not giving it); foes of י׳ †Ex 20:5 = Dt 5:9; Dt 7:10(×2); 2 Ch 19:2. e.g. Isaiah 66:5
Niphal
- Impf. 3 ms. יִשָּׂנֵא Pr 14:17 is hated, so v 20 (+ ל pers. by, v. לְ 5 d). e.g. Proverbs 14:17
Piel
- Pt. sf. מְשַׂנְאִי Jb 31:29; ψ 55:13; pl. cstr. מְשַׂנְאֵי 81:16; sf. מְשַׂנְאַי 2 S 22:41 +, etc.;—enemy (Qal 3) ‖ אֹיֵב, צָר, etc.: e.g. Job 31:29
- 1. personal and national, Jb 31:29 Dt 33:11 (poem), 2 S 22:41 = ψ 18:41, ψ 44:8, 11; 55:13; 68:2; 89:24. e.g. Job 31:29
- 2. of י׳ Nu 10:35 (J), Dt 32:41 (poem), ψ 81:16; 83:3; 139:21. e.g. Numbers 10:35
- 3. of wisdom Pr 8:36. e.g. Proverbs 8:36
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
vb. hate (NH id.; MI4 שנאי my foes; Sab. שנאם foe Sab.DenkmNo. 12, l, 9 cf. Ib.No. 7, l. 9 CISiv, No. 173, l. 6; Arabic شنأ, شَنَىَٔ, hate; Aramaic סְנָא, ܣܢܳܐ, id., סָנְאָה, ܣܳܢܳܐܐ hater, etc.; Ethiopic hate is ጸልአ: );—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
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.
שְׁנָא I
- to change, v. שְׁנֵי.
נָא I
- = אֲנָא. Y. Ter. V, 43ᶜ bot. ואוף נא וכ׳ I, too, think so. Y. Ber. IV, beg. 7ᵃ וָנָא אמרית וכ׳ and I gave a reason for it; a. fr.—V. דְּנָה, לֵינָא.—Pl. נַן. Y. B. Kam. II, beg. 2ᵈ מה נן אמרין וכ׳ why do we say &c.; a. fr.
נָא II
- (also adverb)(b. h.;
- 1. hurried, half-done. Pes. 41ᵃ bot. אכלו נא if he ate it (the Passover lamb) half-done. Ib.ᵇ ישנו בבל תאכל נא is subject to the law (Ex. XII, 9) &c. Tosef. Macc. IV (III), 1, contrad. to חַי. Men. 78ᵇ מצה נא, v. הַיָנָא; a. fr. e.g. Exodus 12:9
- 2. slender, fine, brittle. — Pl. נָאִין; f. נָאוֹת. Tosef. Kel. B. Kam. II, 9 [read with R. S. to Kel. III, 2:] הוסקו והנאין (= והן נאין) if the vessels were heated but turned out brittle. B. Bath, 97ᵇ (expl. פיטסות, ib. VI, 2) נאות ומגופרות thin, but lined with pitch; Tosef. ib. VI, 3.
נָא III
- (b. h.) I pray, prithee. Yoma IV, 2; a. fr.—Ber. 9ᵃ, a. e. אין נא אלא וכ׳, v. בַּקָּשָׁה.
נַן
- , pl. of נָא I.
שִׁנָא
- , v. שֵׁינְתָא
שָׂנֵא
- (b. h.) to hate. Pes. 49ᵇ גדולה שנאה ששׂוֹנְאִין וכ׳ great is the hatred with which the ignorant hate the scholar, even greater than that which gentiles bear towards Israel. Ib. 113ᵇ שלשה שׂוֹנְאָן three classes of men does the Lord hate. Ib. שלשה שונאין זה וכ׳ three kinds of creatures hate one another, the dog &c. Ib. מצוה לִשְׂנֹאתוֹ (Var. מותר) it is right (permitted) to hate him. Ib. שִׂנְאוּ את אדניכם hate your masters. Snh. 108ᵇ the raven said to Noah, רבך שׂוֹנְאֵנִי ואתה שְׂנֵאתַנִי thy master (God) hates me, and thou hatest me. Ab. I, 10 אהוב … ושְׂנָא וכ׳ love work and hate office; a. fr.—Part. pass. שָׂנוּא; f. שְׂנוּאָה &c. Kidd. 68ᵃ; Yeb. 23ᵃ (ref. to Deut. XXI, 15) וכי יש ש׳ לפני המקום וכ׳ is there before God a hated one and a beloved one (could it be supposed that the law should allow a discrimination between the children of a favored and of a hated wife)? Ib. ש׳ בנישואיה, v. נִישּׂוּאִין; a. e.—Sifra K’doshim, Par. 3, ch. VIII שָׂנְאוּי. e.g. Deuteronomy 21:15
- to be hated. Num. R. s. 48 הר ס̇ינ̇י שבו נִשְׂנְאוּ וכ׳ it is called Mount Sinai, because on it the gentiles became hateful to the Lord &c. (v. שִׂנְאָה); Yalk. Is. 363 נִשְׂתַּנְּאוּ. Taan. 7ᵇ (ref. to ישנא, Koh. VIII, 1) א"ת ישונא אלא יִשָּׂנֵא read not y’shunne (shall be changed), but yissane (shall be hated). e.g. Ecclesiastes 8:1
- same. Pesik. R. s. 14 (ref. to Koh. l. c.) יְשׂוּנֶּא יְסוּנֶּה בסמ"ך read y’sunne, with Samekh (v. supra).
שְׂנֵא
- , v. סְנֵי
שְׁנָא II
- , year. Targ. Lev. XXV, 53 (O. ed. Vien. שְׁנָה); a. fr.—Constr. שְׁנַת. Ib. 5; a. e.—Pl. שְׁנַיָּא, שְׁנִין, שְׁנֵי, שְׁנָתָא. Ib. 3; 15; 52; a. fr.—Targ. Ps. XC, 10 שְׁנָתָנָא Ms. (ed. שְׁנוֹתָנָא).—R. Hash. 31ᵃ שיתא אלפי ש׳ וכ׳ the world will last six thousand years. Ab. Zar. 9ᵃ. Ib. 9ᵇ sq. ההוא … שית ש׳ יתירתא a document dated six years ahead; a. fr.
שְׁנֵי
- 1. to repeat. Targ. I Sam. XXVI, 8 ed. Wil. (v. תְּנֵי).—Snh. 59ᵃ ולמה לי למִישְׁנֵי בסיני and why is it repeated at Sinai?; a. e.
- 2. to change; to be different. Targ. O. Deut. XXXIV, 7.—Lev. R. s. 22 כל מאי דהוה הדין ש׳ הדין ש׳ as the one (the mosquito) changed, so did the other (Titus) change. Yeb. 21ᵇ או דילמא לא שנא (abbrev. ל"ש) or is there no difference (between the wife of a brother on the mother’s side and that of a brother on the father’s side)? Succ. 29ᵇ ל"ש ביו"ט … ול"ש וכ׳ no difference whether it is the first Holy Day or the second. Ib. 30ᵃ ל"ש לפני וכ׳ no difference whether before &c. Sabb. 6ᵃ הכי נמי ל"ש in this case, too, it is the same; a. v. fr.—Yeb. l. c. מאי ש׳ הני מאי ש׳ הא (abbrev. מ"ש) what difference is there between the former and the latter? Sabb. 4ᵃ ומאי ש׳ and wherein lies the difference? Ib. 2ᵇ מ"ש הכא … ומ"ש התם וכ׳ wherein lies the difference (what reason is there) that the Mishnah says here, ‘two which are four within, and two which are four without’, and there (Shebu. I, 1) only, ‘two which are four’?; a. fr.—Part. שָׁאנֵי it is different. Succ. 21ᵇ ש׳ שוורים הואיל וכ׳ it is different in the case of oxen, because &c. Sabb. 7ᵇ ש׳ צרור וכ׳ it is different with bundles and other objects &c. Ker. 11ᵃ והכא ש׳ but here it is different; a. v. fr.—V. שׁנִיא.
- 1. to change; to act strangely. Targ. Gen. XLI, 14. Targ. Ps. LXXXIX, 35. Ib. XXXIV, 1. Targ. Y. II, Deut. XXXII, 5; a. fr.—[Ib. 41 אישני, read: אישנן, v. שְׁנַן.—Targ. Jud. XX, 16 משנן, read: משגן, v. שְׁגֵי.]—Taan. 24ᵇ שַׁנִּי דוכתיך change thy place; ש׳ דוכתיה he changed his place. Ker. 11ᵃ לישנא דשׁנּוּיֵי, v. חָרַף. Bets. 30ᵃ כמה דאפשר לשנויי מְשַׁנִּינָן וכ׳ as much as it is feasible to change (the mode of doing a thing), we must change on the Holy Day; Sabb. 128ᵇ; ib. 117ᵇ מְשַׁנִּין. Bets. l. c. והא הני נשי … ולא מְשַׁנְּיָין וכ׳ but there are those women that fill their pitchers … without any change, and we say nothing to them (to interfere)! Snh. 96ᵃ top שני נפשך (Rashi אַשְׁנִי) disguise thyself; במאי אִישַׁנֵּי how shall I disguise (myself)?; Yalk. Is. 276; a. fr.
- 2. to reply. Sabb. 7ᵇ זימנין מְשַׁנֵּי לה וכ׳ at times he replied to it (met the objection by saying) &c. Ib. 3ᵇ דמשני לך; Keth. 98ᵇ דשַׁנִּינָן, v. שִׁינּוּיָא. Pes. 20ᵇ ומְשַׁנֵּי שאני התם וכ׳ and he answered, it is different in that case; a. fr.—Shebu. 21ᵃ top כדשני ליה (Rashi כדמשני) as he (Abayi) replied to him (R. Papa, further below).
- to change, act strangely. Targ. Mal. III, 6. Targ. O. a. Y. I Deut. XXXII, 5; a. fr.—[Targ. Ps. LXXI, 17 אשני, read with ed. Lag. אתני.]—Snh. 96ᵃ top, v. supra. e.g. Deuteronomy 32:5
- 1. to be changed. Targ. Deut. l. c. Targ. Lam. IV, 1; a. e.—Snh. 71ᵇ נימא הואיל וא׳ א׳ let us say, because his status has changed, he is a different person (not responsible for acts committed in his previous condition); האי דינו א׳ מיתתו לא א׳ this man’s legal status has changed, but the mode of his execution is not affected thereby. Ib. הואיל וא׳ א׳ … דא׳ לגמרי because a change has taken place (by her becoming of age), she is a different person (and the mode of her execution must be different): so much the more here (in the case of a proselyte) where a complete change has taken place. Ib. 96ᵃ א׳ אפיה והוה וכ׳ his face changed, and he looked like a dog. Sabb. 36ᵃ הני … א׳ שמייהו וכ׳ the names of the following three things have changed since the destruction of the Temple; Succ. 34ᵃ; a. e.
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 124 distinct written forms H8130 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’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; 64 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H8130, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 122 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 139 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 24:60
- Exodus 1:10
- Leviticus 19:17
- Numbers 10:35
- Deuteronomy 4:42
- Joshua 20:5
- Judges 11:7
- 2 Samuel 5:8
- 1 Kings 22:8
- 2 Chronicles 1:11
- Esther 9:1
- Job 8:22
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.
