בֶּ֫טֶן
belly
also: womb, body 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
- 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
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
4 verses where H990 appears in the Absolute state in the Book of Psalms. 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.
Psalms
- Psalms 22:9 מִ/בָּ֑טֶן prep + n c fs But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust at my mother's breasts.
- Psalms 58:3 מִ֝/בֶּ֗טֶן prep + n c fs The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
- Psalms 71:6 מִ/בֶּ֗טֶן prep + n c fs I have relied on you from the womb. You are he who took me out of my mother's womb. I will always praise you.
- Psalms 127:3 הַ/בָּֽטֶן ptcl def.art + n c fs Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward.
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.
בטן (beṭen) is a Hebrew noun most often rendered “belly.” It first appears in Genesis 25:23. With 72 verses in 17 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Beyond its headline sense, its full sense range takes in “womb” and “body”. It clusters with בטן and בטן under a shared root. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H990 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 →
- 72
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 72 distinct verses.
- 17 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 17 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #550
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 550 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 72 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 72 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 37 verses · 51%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 22 verses · 31%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 13 verses · 18%
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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Belly 26×, Womb 24×, Body 6×
- American Standard Version†: Womb 14×, Body 12×, 's womb 5×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Womb 34×, Belly 8×, Stomach 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Womb 28×, Belly 27×, Womb of 5×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H990 across 72† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 H990 across 69† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 29 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 H990 across 64† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 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 8 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H990 across 76† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
6 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 6 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.
בטן I
- 1.
- a. belly, abdomen, of man Ju 3:21, 22; of woman Nu 5:21, 22, 27; as beautiful in form Ct 7:3; as seat of hunger Pr 13:25; as eating Ez 3:3 (‖ מֵעִים); cf. Pr 18:20 (fig.); as seat of passion, avarice, etc. Jb 20:20, 23; in fig. of God’s casting riches out of extortioner’s belly Jb 20:15 (‖ וַיְקִאֶנּוּ), cf. also ψ 17:14; fig. of innermost part of a man = inmost soul Pr 18:8 = 26:22, 20:27, 30 (all חַדְרֵי ב׳); as seat of intell. faculties (= Eng. breast or bosom) 22:18 (cf. מֵעִים ψ 40:9) Jb 15:2, 35; 32:18, רוּחַ בִּטְנִי v 19; as trembling at theophany Hb 3:16. e.g. Judges 3:21
- b. belly of hippopotamus Jb 40:16. e.g. Job 40:16
- c. בֶּטֶן שְׁאוֹל Jon 2:3 (Jonah’s prayer: ‖ מְצוּלָה בִּלְבַב יַמִּים). e.g. Jonah 2:3
- 2. body, opp. soul ψ 31:10 (opp. נֶפֶשׁ), also 44:26 (opp. id.;—on this cf. ZimBP 71). e.g. Psalms 31:10
- 3. womb Gn 25:23, 24; 38:27 (all J) Ho 12:4 Jb 10:19 (‖ רֶחֶם v 18) Ec 11:5 Jb 31:15 הֲלֹא בַבֶּטֶן עֹשֵׂנִי עָשָׂ֑הוּ did not he that made me in the womb make him (‖ וַיְכֻנֶנּוּ בָּרֶחֶם אֶחָד); cf. ψ 139:13 תְּסֻכֵּנִי בְּבֶטֶן, & Je 1:5; especially פְּרִי ב׳ i.e. offspring Gn 30:2 (E) ψ 127:3 Is 13:18; Pr 31:2 בַּר בִּטְנִי = my son (‖ בְּרִי) cf. בֶּן־בִּטְנָהּ Is 49:15; of birth יָצָא מִבֶּטֶן Jb 1:21; 3:11 Ec 5:14; בֶּטֶן alone = birth Ho 9:11 (‖ לֵרָה, הֵרָיוֹן), cf. fig. מִבֶּטֶן מִי יָצָא הַקָּ֑רַח Jb 38:29 out of whose womb came the ice? cf. לֹא סָגַר דַּלְתֵי בִּטְנִי Jb 3:10 i.e. of my (mother’s) womb; גָּחָה מִבֶּטֶן take, draw out of the womb, subj. י׳ (i.e. cause to be born) ψ 22:10; פְּרִי בֶטֶן used also of father Mi 6:7, cf. ψ 132:11 (David as ancestor of Messian. king); Jb 19:17 בְּנֵי בִטְנִי sons of my body, of doubtful interpr., perhaps = sons of my (mother’s) womb, cf. 3:10 (Ges De), i.e. my brothers or men of my clan RSK 33 f., others my sons (Ew), my grandsons (Di); also in addressing Isr. as a whole (masc. sf.) Dt 7:13; 28:4, 11, 18, 53; 30:9, cf. מַחֲמַדֵּי בִטְנָם Ho 9:16 beloved ones of their womb; מִן־הַבֶּטֶן (מִבֶּטֶן) = from birth Ju 13:5, 7 ψ 58:4; 71:6, cf. also Is 44:2, 24; 46:3 (‖ רָ֑חַם) 48:8; 49:1, 5; מִבֶּטֶן אִמִּי id. Ju 16:17 Jb 31:18 ψ 22:11 (‖ רֶחֶם). e.g. Genesis 25:23
- 4. architectural word of some rounded projection connected with the two pillars Jachin & Boaz bell, cushion 1 K 7:20. e.g. 1 Kings 7:20
בטן II loc. city in Asher Jos 19
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
I. n.f. Nu 5:25 belly, body, womb (Arabic بَطْنٌ )—בּ׳ abs. Ju 13:7 +; בָּ֑טֶן v 5 +; cstr. בֶּטֶן ψ 139:13 +; sf. בִּטְנִי Jb 3:10 +; בִּטְנְךָ Dt 7:13 +; בִּטְנֵךְ Gn 25:23; בִּטְנוֹ Jb 15:2 +, etc.;—
II. n.pr.loc. city in Asher Jos 19:25 (= depression, basin, valley? cf. Arabic بَطْنٌ, Lane220 col. 3) = Βατναί, called Βεθβετεν cf. LagOnom. 236, 2nd ed. 249; 𝔊 Βαιθοκ, 𝔊L Βετελ.
— 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 hollow
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.
בְּטַן
- (v. בטי) to be pregnant. Targ. Prov. XXV, 23.—Gen. R. s. 98 (play on triyah, Jud. XV, 15, as if τρία, three) בָּטְנָה תרין she was going with two (making together three). Lam. R. to I, 1 רבתי (חד מאת׳ 7). [Targ. Jud. XV, 15 בטינתא, v. טִינָתָא.] e.g. Judges 15:15
בֶּטֶן
- v. בטי) belly. Nidd. 31ᵇ. Sot. 28ᵃ בִּטְנוֹ וכ׳ the belly of the adulterer; 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 56 distinct written forms H990 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 H990, 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 66 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 72 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 25:23
- Numbers 5:21
- Deuteronomy 7:13
- Judges 3:21
- 1 Kings 7:20
- Job 1:21
- Psalms 17:14
- Proverbs 13:25
- Ecclesiastes 5:15
- Song of Solomon 7:2
- Isaiah 13:18
- Jeremiah 1:5
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.
