adam · human being, man, Adam

What it means

adam (אָדָם) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “human being, man, Adam”.

The Hebrew word "adam". It has three uses: (1) humanity in general, men and women alike: "human beings" (Genesis 1:27); (2) a particular man; in Genesis 2-4, the first man, "the man"; (3) the personal name of that first man, "Adam". In Hebrew "adam" sounds like "adamah", the ground he was formed from (Genesis 2:7).

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. All humankind, men and women, as creatures God formed.
2. A person; with "not", no one.
3. Adam, the first man.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Human being, man. BDB defines it as a human being: an individual or the species. It sounds like אֲדָמָה, “ground”, from which the man was formed (Genesis 2:7). As a proper name, “Adam”, it has its own entry in this text (H121).

• Humanity, men and women alike Genesis 1:27Genesis 9:6
• The first man, formed from dust from the ground Genesis 2:7
• “Son of man”: a human being, a mortal Ezekiel 2:1Psalms 8:4

How we translate it

“Man” 195 times, “human being” 161, “human beings” 125, “human” 21, “people” 20. This edition's glossary sets “the human being” when the word names humanity (Genesis 1:27: “male and female he created them”), “the man” in the story of the first man in Genesis 2–4, and “Adam” only when it is a proper name. בֶּן־אָדָם is translated “son of man” (Ezekiel 2:1); its plural, “human beings”.

How it is translated

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

• man ×195
• human being ×161
• human beings ×125
• human ×21
• people ×20
• anyone ×7
• men ×6
• humankind ×5
• person ×5
• Adam ×2
• others ×5

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×47
• Exodus×14
• Leviticus×15
• Numbers×24
• Deuteronomy×7
• Joshua×2
• Judges×5
• 1 Samuel×7
• 2 Samuel×4
• 1 Kings×5
• 2 Kings×4
• 1 Chronicles×4
• 2 Chronicles×6
• Nehemiah×3
• Job×26
• Psalms×62
• Proverbs×45
• Ecclesiastes×49
• Isaiah×27
• Jeremiah×30
• Lamentations×2
• Ezekiel×132
• Daniel×4
• Hosea×3
• Joel×1
• Amos×1
• Jonah×3
• Micah×5
• Habakkuk×3
• Zephaniah×3
• Haggai×1
• Zechariah×7
• Malachi×1

• Genesis 1:26

  And Elohim said, “Let us make the human being in our image, according to our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

• Genesis 1:27

  And Elohim created the human being in his image; in the image of Elohim he created him; male and female he created them.

• Genesis 2:5

  Now no shrub of the field was yet on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for YHWH Elohim had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no human being to work the ground;

• Genesis 2:7

  And YHWH Elohim formed the man from dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

• Genesis 2:8

  And YHWH Elohim planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

• Genesis 2:15

  And YHWH Elohim took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it.

• Genesis 2:16

  And YHWH Elohim commanded the man, saying, “From every tree of the garden you may freely eat;

• Genesis 2:18

  And YHWH Elohim said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make for him a helper corresponding to him.”

• Genesis 2:19

  And YHWH Elohim formed from the ground every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called it, as a living being, that was its name.

• Genesis 2:20

  And the man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the sky and to every animal of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helper corresponding to him.

• Genesis 2:21

  And YHWH Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his sides and closed up the flesh in its place.

• 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 2:23

  And the man said, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called Woman, because from Man this one was taken.”

• Genesis 2:25

  And the two of them, the man and his wife, were naked, and they were not ashamed.

• Genesis 3:8

  And they heard the sound of YHWH Elohim walking about in the garden in the wind of the day, and the man and his wife hid from the presence of YHWH Elohim among the trees of the garden.

• Genesis 3:9

  And YHWH Elohim called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

• Genesis 3:12

  And the man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”

• Genesis 3:20

  And the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

• Genesis 3:21

  And YHWH Elohim made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them.

• Genesis 3:22

  And YHWH Elohim said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, so that he does not reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever—”

• Genesis 3:24

  And he drove out the man, and he stationed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the flame of the sword that turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

• Genesis 4:1

  Now the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have acquired a man with YHWH.”

• Genesis 5:1

  This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that Elohim created the human being, in the likeness of Elohim he made him.

• Genesis 5:2

  Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and called their name “Human Being” in the day they were created.

• Genesis 6:1

  And it happened, when human beings began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them,

• Genesis 6:2

  that the sons of Elohim saw that the daughters of human beings were beautiful; and they took for themselves wives from all whom they chose.

• Genesis 6:3

  And YHWH said, “My spirit will not remain in the human being forever, for he also is flesh; and his days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

• Genesis 6:4

  The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of Elohim went in to the daughters of human beings and they bore children to them; they were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

• Genesis 6:5

  And YHWH saw that the wickedness of the human being was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day.

• Genesis 6:6

  And YHWH was sorry that he had made the human being on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.

• Genesis 6:7

  And YHWH said, “I will wipe out the human being whom I have created from the face of the ground, from human being to livestock, to creeping things and to the birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I made them.”

• Genesis 7:21

  And all flesh that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, animals, and all the swarming things that swarm on the earth, and all human beings.

• Genesis 7:23

  And he wiped out all that existed that was on the face of the ground, from human being to livestock, to creeping things and to the birds of the sky; and they were wiped out from the earth. And only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.

• Genesis 8:21

  And YHWH smelled the pleasing aroma, and YHWH said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human being, for the inclination of the heart of the human being is evil from his youth; and I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.

• Genesis 9:5

  And surely your blood, for your lives, I will require; from the hand of every animal I will require it, and from the hand of the human being, from the hand of each one for his brother, I will require the life of the human being.

• Genesis 9:6

  Whoever sheds the blood of the human being, by the human being his blood will be shed; for in the image of Elohim he made the human being.

• Genesis 11:5

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

• Genesis 16:12

  He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone, and the hand of everyone against him; and facing all his brothers he will dwell.”

• Exodus 4:11

  YHWH said to him, “Who gave a mouth to a human being? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, YHWH?

• Exodus 8:17

  They did so; Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on people and on animals; all the dust of the earth became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.

And 512 more times.