gaon · majesty, pride

What it means

gaon (גָּאוֹן) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “majesty, pride”.

Majesty, greatness; in people, pride.

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. YHWH's majesty, which makes those who see it tremble.
2. Thinking oneself above others, a person or nation.
3. The dense brush by the Jordan.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Height, greatness: said of God, his majesty; said of persons or nations, pride, in a good or a bad sense. It comes from the verb גָּאָה, ‘rise up, be high’. Because of its tall vegetation, also the thicket of the Jordan.

• The majesty of YHWH Exodus 15:7Job 37:4Isaiah 2:10
• The pride that leads to the fall Proverbs 16:18Leviticus 26:19Ezekiel 16:49
• “The pride of Jacob” Amos 6:8Hosea 5:5
• “The pride of Jacob”: his inheritance Psalms 47:4
• “The thicket of the Jordan” Jeremiah 12:5Jeremiah 49:19

How we translate it

The rendering depends on who is spoken of: of God, “majesty” (Exodus 15:7; Job 37:4) or, in Isaiah, “loftiness” (“the majesty of his loftiness”, Isaiah 2:10); of persons and nations, “pride” (34 times) or “haughtiness” (2). So it can be seen that it is the same word in God, to whom it belongs, and in the man who claims it for himself. When it is the Jordan, “the thicket” (4), with a note.

How it is translated

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

• pride ×34
• loftiness ×5
• thicket ×4
• majesty ×3
• haughtiness ×2
• grandeur ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Exodus×1
• Leviticus×1
• Job×4
• Psalms×2
• Proverbs×2
• Isaiah×12
• Jeremiah×7
• Ezekiel×9
• Hosea×2
• Amos×2
• Micah×1
• Nahum×2
• Zephaniah×1
• Zechariah×3

• Exodus 15:7

  In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow those who rise against you; you send out your burning anger; it consumes them like stubble.

• Leviticus 26:19

  And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your land like bronze.

• Job 35:12

  There they cry out, but he does not answer, because of the haughtiness of evil men.

• Job 37:4

  After it a voice roars; he thunders with the voice of his majesty, and he does not hold them back when his voice is heard.

• Job 38:11

  and said, ‘As far as here you may come, and no farther; and here a limit shall be set to the haughtiness of your waves’?

• Job 40:10

  Adorn yourself, please, with grandeur and height, and with splendor and majesty clothe yourself.

• Psalms 47:4

  He chooses for us our inheritance, the pride of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

• Psalms 59:12

  The sin of their mouth is the word of their lips; let them be caught in their pride, and for the imprecation and the lying that they recount.

• Proverbs 8:13

  The fear of YHWH is to hate evil; arrogance and pride and the way of evil and the mouth of perversities I hate.

• Proverbs 16:18

  Before a breaking comes pride, and before a fall, haughtiness of spirit.

• Isaiah 2:10

  Go into the rock and hide in the dust from before the dread of YHWH and from the majesty of his loftiness.

• Isaiah 2:19

  And they will go into the caves of the rocks and into the holes of the dust, from before the dread of YHWH and from the majesty of his loftiness, when he rises to terrify the earth.

• Isaiah 2:21

  to go into the clefts of the rocks and into the crevices of the crags, from before the dread of YHWH and from the majesty of his loftiness, when he rises to terrify the earth.

• Isaiah 4:2

  On that day the sprout of YHWH will be an ornament and glory, and the fruit of the land will be loftiness and beauty for the escaped of Israel.

• Isaiah 13:11

  And I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will put an end to the pride of the insolent, and the arrogance of tyrants I will bring low.

• Isaiah 13:19

  And Babylon, the ornament of kingdoms, the beauty of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be like the overthrow by Elohim of Sodom and Gomorrah.

• Isaiah 14:11

  Your pride has been brought down to Sheol, the noise of your harps; beneath you worms are spread out, and grubs are your covering.

• Isaiah 16:6

  We have heard of the pride of Moab, very proud, his arrogance and his pride and his wrath; his boasts are not so.

• Isaiah 23:9

  YHWH Tsevaot has planned it, to profane the pride of all ornament, to bring into contempt all the honored of the earth.

• Isaiah 24:14

  They lift up their voice, they shout for joy; over the loftiness of YHWH they cry out from the sea.

• Isaiah 60:15

  Instead of your being forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you an eternal pride, a rejoicing of generation after generation.

• Jeremiah 12:5

  If with men on foot you have run and they have wearied you, how will you compete with the horses? And in a land of peace you feel secure, but how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?

• Jeremiah 13:9

  Thus says YHWH: “Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the pride of Jerusalem, the great.

• Jeremiah 48:29

  We have heard of the pride of Moab, very proud, his loftiness and his pride and his arrogance and the haughtiness of his heart.

• Jeremiah 49:19

  Look, like a lion he comes up from the thicket of the Jordan against the perennial fold; for in an instant I will make him run from it, and whoever is chosen I will appoint over it; for who is like me? And who will summon me? And who is this shepherd who will stand before me?

• Jeremiah 50:44

  Look, like a lion he comes up from the thicket of the Jordan against the perennial fold; for in an instant I will make them run from it, and whoever is chosen I will appoint over it; for who is like me? And who will summon me? And who is this shepherd who will stand before me?

• Ezekiel 7:20

  And the beauty of its ornament they set for pride, and the images of their abominations, their detestable things, they made with it; therefore I have made it for them an impurity.

• Ezekiel 7:24

  And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will possess their houses; and I will make cease the pride of the strong, and their sanctuaries will be profaned.

• Ezekiel 16:49

  Look, this was the iniquity of Sodom your sister: pride, fullness of bread, and careless ease were hers and her daughters’, but the hand of the poor and the needy she did not strengthen.

• Ezekiel 16:56

  And was not Sodom your sister a report in your mouth in the day of your pride,

• Ezekiel 24:21

  ‘Say to the house of Israel: Thus says Adonai YHWH: Look, I am profaning my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, and the tenderness of your soul; and your sons and your daughters whom you left behind will fall by the sword.

• Ezekiel 30:6

  Thus says YHWH: Those who support Egypt will fall, and the pride of her strength will come down; from Migdol to Syene by the sword they will fall in her, declares Adonai YHWH.

• Ezekiel 30:18

  And in Tahpanhes the day will grow dark, when I break there the bars of Egypt, and the pride of her strength ceases in her; as for her, a cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity.

• Ezekiel 32:12

  By the swords of mighty men I will make your multitude fall, the fearsome ones of the nations, all of them; and they will devastate the pride of Egypt, and all her multitude will be exterminated.

• Ezekiel 33:28

  And I will make the land a desolation and a horror, and the pride of her strength will cease, and the mountains of Israel will be desolate, with no one passing through.

• Hosea 5:5

  And the pride of Israel testifies to his face; and Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity; Judah also will stumble with them.

• Hosea 7:10

  And the pride of Israel testifies to his face; and they have not returned to YHWH their Elohim, and they have not sought him in all this.

• Amos 6:8

  Adonai YHWH has sworn by his soul, declares YHWH, Elohim Tsevaot: I abhor the pride of Jacob, and his citadels I hate; and I will hand over the city and all that fills it.

• Amos 8:7

  YHWH has sworn by the pride of Jacob: I will never forget any of their deeds.

• Micah 5:4

  And he will stand and shepherd in the strength of YHWH, in the majesty of the name of YHWH his Elohim; and they will dwell, for now he will be great to the ends of the earth.

And 9 more times.