bana · build

What it means

bana (בָּנָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “build”.

Construct; also rebuild. Figuratively, build up a family (give it children).

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. To raise a house, a city or an altar, setting stone on stone.
2. To build a family, give someone offspring.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Build. BDB defines it as to build, literally and figuratively.

• To build a city, a tower, an altar Genesis 11:4Genesis 8:20
• To build the house of YHWH 1 Kings 6:1
• God “built” the woman Genesis 2:22
• “Build a house”: to give descendants Ruth 4:112 Samuel 7:27
• “If YHWH does not build a house” Psalms 127:1

How we translate it

“Built” 199 times, “build” 125, “building” 24, “builders” 11. This edition keeps “build” even where English might say something else, so that the image remains: YHWH Elohim “built the side… into a woman” (Genesis 2:22), and Rachel and Leah “built the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11; also 2 Samuel 7:27).

How it is translated

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

• built ×199
• build ×125
• building ×24
• builders ×11
• builds ×8
• be rebuilt ×4
• I will have children ×1
• may have children ×1
• mound ×1
• rebuild it ×1
• others ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×16
• Exodus×5
• Numbers×10
• Deuteronomy×10
• Joshua×11
• Judges×7
• Ruth×1
• 1 Samuel×4
• 2 Samuel×8
• 1 Kings×67
• 2 Kings×12
• 1 Chronicles×29
• 2 Chronicles×61
• Ezra×10
• Nehemiah×24
• Job×5
• Psalms×12
• Proverbs×4
• Ecclesiastes×3
• Song of Songs×2
• Isaiah×12
• Jeremiah×23
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×16
• Daniel×2
• Hosea×1
• Amos×4
• Micah×2
• Habakkuk×1
• Zephaniah×1
• Haggai×2
• Zechariah×7
• Malachi×3

• Genesis 2:22

  And YHWH Elohim built the side that he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.

• Genesis 4:17

  And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. And he was building a city, and he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.

• Genesis 8:20

  And Noah built an altar to YHWH, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

• Genesis 10:11

  From that land he went out to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,

• Genesis 11:4

  And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, so that we are not scattered over the face of all the earth.”

• Genesis 11:5

  YHWH came down to see the city and the tower that the human beings had built.

• Genesis 11:8

  So YHWH scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

• Genesis 12:7

  Then YHWH appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to YHWH, who had appeared to him.

• Genesis 12:8

  From there he moved on to the mountain east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to YHWH and called on the name of YHWH.

• Genesis 13:18

  So Abram moved his tent and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and he built there an altar to YHWH.

• Genesis 16:2

  Sarai said to Abram, “Look, YHWH has kept me from bearing children. Go in please to my slave woman; perhaps I will have children through her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

• Genesis 22:9

  They came to the place that Elohim had told him, and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

• Genesis 26:25

  He built there an altar and called on the name of YHWH, and pitched his tent there, and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

• Genesis 30:3

  She said, “Here is my slave woman Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may bear on my knees, and I too may have children through her.”

• Genesis 33:17

  But Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built himself a house, and made booths for his livestock; therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

• Genesis 35:7

  He built there an altar and called the place El-bethel, because there Elohim had revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

• Exodus 1:11

  So they set over them chiefs of forced labor to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Rameses.

• Exodus 17:15

  Moses built an altar and called its name YHWH Nissi,

• Exodus 20:25

  And if you make me an altar of stones, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you lift your tool on it, you profane it.

• Exodus 24:4

  Moses wrote all the words of YHWH. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve standing stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.

• Exodus 32:5

  When Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron proclaimed and said, “A feast to YHWH tomorrow!”

• Numbers 13:22

  They went up into the Negev and came as far as Hebron; and there were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, descendants of Anak. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

• Numbers 21:27

  Therefore those who recite poems say, “Come to Heshbon; let it be built, and let the city of Sihon be established.

• Numbers 23:1

  And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

• Numbers 23:14

  And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

• Numbers 23:29

  And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

• Numbers 32:16

  They came near to him and said, “We will build sheep pens here for our livestock and cities for our little ones.

• Numbers 32:24

  Build for yourselves cities for your little ones and pens for your sheep, and what has come out of your mouth do.”

• Numbers 32:34

  The sons of Gad built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,

• Numbers 32:37

  The sons of Reuben built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,

• Numbers 32:38

  Nebo, and Baal-meon —their names changed— and Sibmah; and they gave names to the cities that they built.

• Deuteronomy 6:10

  And when YHWH your Elohim brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you— great and good cities that you did not build,

• Deuteronomy 8:12

  lest you eat and are satisfied, and build good houses and live in them,

• Deuteronomy 13:16

  All its spoil you shall gather into the middle of its square, and you shall burn with fire the city and all its spoil as a whole offering to YHWH your Elohim, and it shall be a heap of ruins forever; it shall not be rebuilt again.

• Deuteronomy 20:5

  And the supervisors shall speak to the people, saying, “Who is the man who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, so that he does not die in the war and another man dedicate it.

• Deuteronomy 20:20

  Only a tree that you know that it is not a tree for food, it you may destroy and cut down, and build siegeworks against the city that is making war with you, until it falls.

• Deuteronomy 22:8

  When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falling falls from it.

• Deuteronomy 25:9

  then his sister-in-law shall come near to him in the sight of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, “So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.”

• Deuteronomy 27:5

  And you shall build there an altar to YHWH your Elohim, an altar of stones; you shall not wield iron on them.

• Deuteronomy 27:6

  Of whole stones you shall build the altar of YHWH your Elohim, and you shall offer up on it burnt offerings to YHWH your Elohim.

And 336 more times.