Grow With Me
Grow With Me

אָב

av · father

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H1 · appears 1213 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

av (אָב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “father”.

Also ancestor ("our fathers"), and the founder or head of a family or group.

How to say it

av

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

  1. The man who begets a child and heads his household.
  2. Ancestors, those who came before in the family.
  3. God, Father of his people.
  4. The head of a family or clan.
  5. One who started a trade, or someone much respected.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Father, literally and figuratively (BDB): one's own father, an ancestor, the one who gives rise to a group, or a figure of authority.

Historical and cultural background

Israel was counted in the censuses “by their families, by their fathers’ houses” (Numbers 1:2). The word is part of many names: Abraham, Joab, Abimelech.

How we translate it

“Father” 716 times, “fathers” 494. The expression בֵּית אָבוֹת is translated “fathers’ houses”, as this edition's glossary sets; where the Hebrew leaves “houses” understood, it is marked as supplied (“of the fathers’ {houses}”).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

  • father ×716
  • fathers ×494
  • Huram-abi ×2
  • forefathers ×1

Related words

Words that come from it

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

  • Genesis 2:24

    That is why a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

  • Genesis 4:20

    And Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and have livestock.

  • Genesis 4:21

    And the name of his brother was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the lyre and the pipe.

  • Genesis 9:18

    And the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan.

  • Genesis 9:22

    And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.

  • Genesis 9:23

    And Shem and Japheth took the cloak and laid it on the shoulders of both of them, and they walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were turned backward, and the nakedness of their father they did not see.

  • Genesis 10:21

    And to Shem also, to him, sons were born, the father of all the sons of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth.

  • Genesis 11:28

    Haran died in the presence of Terah his father in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

  • Genesis 11:29

    Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.

  • Genesis 12:1

    YHWH said to Abram, “Go from your land, from your kindred, and from the house of your father to the land that I will show you.

  • Genesis 15:15

    As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.

  • Genesis 17:4

    “As for me, look, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

  • Genesis 17:5

    No longer will your name be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

  • Genesis 19:31

    The older said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.

  • Genesis 19:32

    Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring from our father.”

  • Genesis 19:33

    So they made their father drink wine that night; and the older went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.

  • Genesis 19:34

    The next day the older said to the younger, “Look, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring from our father.”

  • Genesis 19:35

    So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger got up and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.

  • Genesis 19:36

    Thus both daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father.

  • Genesis 19:37

    The older bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of Moab to this day.

  • Genesis 19:38

    The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day.

  • Genesis 20:12

    Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

  • Genesis 20:13

    And when Elohim caused me to wander from the house of my father, I said to her, ‘This is the loyal love that you shall show me: in every place that we come to, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

  • Genesis 22:7

    Isaac said to Abraham his father, and he said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

  • Genesis 22:21

    Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram,

  • Genesis 24:7

    YHWH, the Elohim of the heavens, who took me from the house of my father and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.

  • Genesis 24:23

    and said, “Whose daughter are you? Please tell me. Is there room in your father’s house for us to spend the night?”

  • Genesis 24:38

    but to the house of my father you will go, and to my family, and take a wife for my son.’

  • Genesis 24:40

    He said to me, ‘YHWH, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and make successful your journey, and you will take a wife for my son from my family and from the house of my father.

  • Genesis 26:3

    Reside as an alien in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.

  • Genesis 26:15

    All the wells that the servants of his father had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped up and filled with dust.

  • Genesis 26:18

    Isaac again dug the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of Abraham; and he called them by names like the names by which his father had called them.

  • Genesis 26:24

    YHWH appeared to him that night and said, “I am the Elohim of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of Abraham my servant.”

  • Genesis 27:6

    Rebekah said to Jacob her son, “Look, I heard your father speaking to Esau your brother, saying,

  • Genesis 27:9

    Go, please, to the flock and get me from there two good young goats, and I will make them into tasty food for your father, such as he loves.

  • Genesis 27:10

    Then you will bring it to your father, and he will eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”

  • Genesis 27:12

    Perhaps my father will feel me, and I will be in his eyes like a mocker, and I will bring on myself a curse and not a blessing.”

  • Genesis 27:14

    So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made tasty food such as his father loved.

  • Genesis 27:18

    He went to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am; who are you, my son?”

  • Genesis 27:19

    Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, so that you may bless me.”

And 1173 more times.