אָהַב
ahav · love
Hebrew word · Strong’s number H157 · appears 209 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
ahav (אָהַב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “love”.
Have affection for someone: a parent for a child, a husband for a wife, a friend for a friend, a person for God; also like, desire.
How to say it
a·hav
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
- To care for someone from the heart and seek their good.
- The love between God and his people.
- To like something.
- One who loves another: the faithful friend or the lover.
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)
Word study
Love, in every kind of relationship: between parents and children, between spouses, between friends, and between God and his people. BDB: to have affection for, sexually or otherwise.
- A father's or a mother's love Genesis 22:2Genesis 25:28Genesis 37:3
- Between a man and a woman Genesis 29:18Genesis 29:30
- Loving YHWH Deuteronomy 6:5Deuteronomy 11:1
- Loving one's neighbor and the resident alien Leviticus 19:18Deuteronomy 10:19
- YHWH loves righteousness Psalms 33:5Psalms 11:7
Historical and cultural background
Its first use in the Bible is of a father: “your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac” (Genesis 22:2).
How we translate it
“Love” 84 times, “loved” 53, “loves” 42, and the participle “lovers” 18, in the images of the prophets. It is translated “love” in every case, also in the story of Amnon and Tamar, with a simple note.
How it is translated
The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.
- love ×84
- loved ×53
- loves ×42
- lovers ×18
- friends ×5
- friend ×3
- loving ×3
- beloved ×1
Related words
Words that come from it
Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.
Where it appears
- Genesis×15
- Exodus×2
- Leviticus×2
- Deuteronomy×22
- Joshua×2
- Judges×4
- Ruth×1
- 1 Samuel×8
- 2 Samuel×7
- 1 Kings×3
- 2 Chronicles×4
- Nehemiah×2
- Esther×4
- Job×1
- Psalms×39
- Proverbs×27
- Ecclesiastes×4
- Song of Songs×7
- Isaiah×9
- Jeremiah×10
- Lamentations×2
- Ezekiel×7
- Daniel×1
- Hosea×16
- Amos×2
- Micah×1
- Zechariah×3
- Malachi×4
- Genesis 22:2
He said, “Take, please, your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him up there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you.”
- Genesis 24:67
Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after the death of his mother.
- Genesis 25:28
Isaac loved Esau, because game was to his taste, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
- Genesis 27:4
and make me tasty food such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, so that I may bless you before I die.”
- 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 27:14
So he went and got them and brought them to his mother, and his mother made tasty food such as his father loved.
- Genesis 29:18
Jacob loved Rachel, and he said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.”
- Genesis 29:20
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they were in his eyes like a few days because of his love for her.
- Genesis 29:30
He went in to Rachel also, and he also loved Rachel more than Leah; and he served with him yet another seven years.
- Genesis 29:32
Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, “Because YHWH has seen my affliction; for now my husband will love me.”
- Genesis 34:3
But his soul clung to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke to the heart of the young woman.
- Genesis 37:3
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a long robe.
- Genesis 37:4
His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him and could not speak to him in peace.
- Genesis 44:20
And we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a young child of his old age; his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’
- Exodus 20:6
but showing loyal love to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
- Exodus 21:5
But if the slave plainly says, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my sons; I will not go out free,’
- Leviticus 19:18
You shall not take vengeance, and you shall not bear a grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am YHWH.
- Leviticus 19:34
As the native among you shall be to you the resident alien who resides with you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt. I am YHWH your Elohim.
- Deuteronomy 4:37
And because he loved your fathers and chose his offspring after him, he brought you out with his presence, by his great power, from Egypt,
- Deuteronomy 5:10
but showing loyal love to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
- Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
- Deuteronomy 7:9
Know that YHWH your Elohim, he is Elohim, the faithful El, who keeps the covenant and the loyal love for those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
- Deuteronomy 7:13
He will love you, bless you, and multiply you; he will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain, your new wine, and your oil, the offspring of your cattle and the young of your flock, on the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.
- Deuteronomy 10:12
And now, Israel, what is YHWH your Elohim asking of you but to fear YHWH your Elohim, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul,
- Deuteronomy 10:15
Yet on your fathers YHWH set his affection to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, you, out of all the peoples, as it is this day.
- Deuteronomy 10:18
He does justice for the orphan and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving him bread and a cloak.
- Deuteronomy 10:19
So you shall love the resident alien, for you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 11:1
You shall love YHWH your Elohim and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments, all the days.
- Deuteronomy 11:13
And it will be, if you truly listen to my commandments that I am commanding you today, to love YHWH your Elohim and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
- Deuteronomy 11:22
For if you carefully keep all this commandment that I am commanding you to do, loving YHWH your Elohim, walking in all his ways, and clinging to him,
- Deuteronomy 13:3
you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer of dreams, for YHWH your Elohim is testing you to know whether you love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul.
- Deuteronomy 15:16
But if he says to you, “I will not go out from you,” because he loves you and your household, because it is good for him with you,
- Deuteronomy 19:9
if you keep all this commandment by doing it, which I am commanding you today, to love YHWH your Elohim and to walk in his ways all the days, then you shall add for yourself three more cities to these three,
- Deuteronomy 21:15
If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and they have borne him sons, the loved and the hated, and the firstborn son is the hated one's,
- Deuteronomy 21:16
then on the day that he gives his sons as an inheritance what he has, he may not make firstborn the son of the loved one in place of the son of the hated one, the firstborn.
- Deuteronomy 23:5
But YHWH your Elohim was not willing to listen to Balaam, and YHWH your Elohim turned for you the curse into a blessing, because YHWH your Elohim loves you.
- Deuteronomy 30:6
And YHWH your Elohim will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, to love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
- Deuteronomy 30:16
in that I am commanding you today to love YHWH your Elohim, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his rules, so that you will live and multiply, and YHWH your Elohim will bless you in the land that you are entering there to possess it.
- Deuteronomy 30:20
loving YHWH your Elohim, listening to his voice, and clinging to him; for he is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live on the land that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
- Joshua 22:5
Only be very careful to do the commandment and the instruction that Moses the servant of YHWH commanded you: to love YHWH your Elohim, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cling to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
And 169 more times.