ayil · ram

What it means

ayil (אַיִל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “ram”.

The male sheep. Also a leader, a strong tree, or a pillar.

How to say it

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. A full-grown male sheep, used as an offering.
2. A strong, leading man who goes in front like the ram of the flock.
3. A firm, projecting part of a gateway: post or lintel.
4. A great, strong tree, like the terebinth.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Ram. BDB gathers here several words written the same way: a chief, a ram, a pilaster and a terebinth. Related to אֵלָה and אֵלוֹן, names of trees.

• The ram in place of Isaac Genesis 22:13
• The ram in the sacrifices Exodus 29:15Leviticus 5:15
• The ram of Daniel's vision Daniel 8:3
• Pilasters of Ezekiel's temple Ezekiel 40:9

Historical and cultural background

In Leviticus 5 “a ram without defect from the flock” is the guilt offering.

How we translate it

“Ram” 89 times, “rams” 67; in Ezekiel 40–41, “pilasters” 17 and “pilaster” 4, which is another sense of the same word. With the sense of leaders, “mighty” 4. The “rams' skins dyed red” cover the tent (Exodus 26:14).

How it is translated

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

• ram ×89
• rams ×67
• pilasters ×17
• mighty ×4
• pilaster ×4
• terebinths ×2
• height ×1
• lintel ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×5
• Exodus×23
• Leviticus×22
• Numbers×66
• Deuteronomy×1
• 1 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Kings×2
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×5
• Ezra×2
• Job×1
• Psalms×3
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×1
• Ezekiel×36
• Daniel×8
• Micah×1

• Genesis 15:9

  He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”

• Genesis 22:13

  Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and look, a ram behind him, caught in the thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering in place of his son.

• Genesis 31:38

  These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and the rams of your flock I have not eaten.

• Genesis 32:14

  two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

• Exodus 15:15

  Then the chieftains of Edom were dismayed; the mighty of Moab, trembling seized them; all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

• Exodus 25:5

  rams' skins dyed red, fine skins, and acacia wood;

• Exodus 26:14

  You shall make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of fine skins above.

• Exodus 29:1

  This is the thing that you shall do to them to consecrate them to serve as priests for me: take one young bull and two rams without defect,

• Exodus 29:3

  You shall put them in one basket and present them in the basket, along with the bull and the two rams.

• Exodus 29:15

  Then you shall take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram.

• Exodus 29:16

  You shall slaughter the ram and take its blood and splash it on the altar all around.

• Exodus 29:17

  You shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and with its head.

• Exodus 29:18

  You shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to YHWH, a pleasing aroma, a fire offering to YHWH it is.

• Exodus 29:19

  You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram.

• Exodus 29:20

  You shall slaughter the ram and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear of Aaron and on the lobe of the ear of his sons, and on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot, and splash the blood on the altar all around.

• Exodus 29:22

  You shall take from the ram the fat and the fat tail, and the fat that covers the entrails, the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and the right thigh, for it is a ram of ordination,

• Exodus 29:26

  You shall take the breast from the ram of ordination that is for Aaron and wave it as a wave offering before YHWH, and it shall be yours as a portion.

• Exodus 29:27

  You shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution, which was waved and which was lifted up from the ram of ordination, from what is for Aaron and from what is for his sons.

• Exodus 29:31

  You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place.

• Exodus 29:32

  Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

• Exodus 35:7

  and rams’ skins dyed red, and fine skins, and acacia wood;

• Exodus 35:23

  And every man with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, and rams’ skins dyed red, and fine skins, brought them.

• Exodus 36:19

  And he made a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of fine skins above.

• Exodus 39:34

  and the covering of rams’ skins dyed red, and the covering of fine skins, and the veil that screens it;

• Leviticus 5:15

  “When a person acts unfaithfully and sins inadvertently in regard to the holy things of YHWH, he shall bring his guilt offering to YHWH, a ram without defect from the flock, by your valuation in shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary, as a guilt offering.

• Leviticus 5:16

  And what he has sinned against the holy thing he shall restore, and he shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest; and the priest shall make expiation for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 5:18

  He shall bring a ram without defect from the flock, by your valuation, as a guilt offering, to the priest, and the priest shall make expiation for him for his inadvertence in which he erred without knowing it, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 6:6

  And his guilt offering he shall bring to YHWH, a ram without defect from the flock, by your valuation, as a guilt offering, to the priest.

• Leviticus 8:2

  “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the oil of anointing, and the bull of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread,

• Leviticus 8:18

  He presented the ram of the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.

• Leviticus 8:20

  The ram he cut into its pieces, and Moses offered up in smoke the head, the pieces, and the suet.

• Leviticus 8:21

  The entrails and the legs he washed in water, and Moses offered up in smoke the whole ram on the altar; it was a burnt offering for a pleasing aroma, it was a fire offering to YHWH, as YHWH had commanded Moses.

• Leviticus 8:22

  He presented the second ram, the ram of ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.

• Leviticus 8:29

  Moses took the breast and waved it as a wave offering before YHWH; from the ram of ordination it was Moses’ portion, as YHWH had commanded Moses.

• Leviticus 9:2

  He said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a calf of the herd for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, both without defect, and present them before YHWH.

• Leviticus 9:4

  and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before YHWH, and a grain offering mixed with oil; for today YHWH will appear to you.’”

• Leviticus 9:18

  He slaughtered the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace that was for the people, and the sons of Aaron handed the blood to him, and he splashed it against the altar all around,

• Leviticus 9:19

  and the fat portions from the ox and from the ram, the fat tail, and that which covers, and the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver;

• Leviticus 16:3

  With this Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering.

• Leviticus 16:5

  And from the community of the sons of Israel he shall take two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering.

And 145 more times.