זָקֵן
zaken · old, elder
Hebrew word · Strong’s number H2205 · appears 178 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
zaken (זָקֵן) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “old, elder”.
Old, aged. In the plural, "the elders": the older men who led a city or a people.
How to say it
za·ken
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
- A person of many years.
- The senior men who led a city or the people.
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)
Word study
Old, aged. In the plural, “the elders”: the older men who led a city, a tribe or the people. It comes from the verb זָקֵן, “to grow old”.
- A person of age Genesis 25:8Genesis 44:201 Kings 13:11
- The elders of Israel Exodus 3:16Numbers 11:16
- The elders of the city, at the gate Ruth 4:2
- The counsel of the elders against that of the young men 1 Kings 12:8
Historical and cultural background
In Ruth 4:2 Boaz takes “ten men of the elders of the city” and has them sit at the gate as witnesses of the redemption.
How we translate it
“Elders” 135 times, “old” 38, “elder” 3. In the plural, as an authority, “the elders”; in the singular, “old” as the case requires. The formula זָקֵן בָּא בַּיָּמִים is translated “old, advanced in days” (Genesis 18:11).
How it is translated
The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.
- elders ×135
- old ×38
- elder ×3
- oldest ×1
- were older ×1
Related words
Comes from
Words that come from it
Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.
Where it appears
- Genesis×9
- Exodus×12
- Leviticus×3
- Numbers×9
- Deuteronomy×21
- Joshua×9
- Judges×14
- Ruth×4
- 1 Samuel×9
- 2 Samuel×6
- 1 Kings×12
- 2 Kings×6
- 1 Chronicles×3
- 2 Chronicles×7
- Ezra×3
- Esther×1
- Job×4
- Psalms×4
- Proverbs×3
- Ecclesiastes×1
- Isaiah×9
- Jeremiah×7
- Lamentations×6
- Ezekiel×10
- Joel×4
- Zechariah×2
- Genesis 18:11
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in days; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
- Genesis 19:4
Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from young to old, all the people from every quarter.
- Genesis 24:2
Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who ruled over all that he had, “Put, please, your hand under my thigh,
- Genesis 25:8
Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, old and satisfied, and he was gathered to his people.
- Genesis 35:29
Isaac breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days; and Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him.
- Genesis 43:27
He asked them about their well-being and said, “Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive?”
- 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.’
- Genesis 50:7
So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
- Exodus 3:16
Go and gather the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers, has appeared to me, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, “I have surely attended to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt,
- Exodus 3:18
They will listen to your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘YHWH, the Elohim of the Hebrews, has met with us. And now, please let us go a journey of three days into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to YHWH our Elohim.’
- Exodus 4:29
Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the sons of Israel.
- Exodus 10:9
Moses said, “With our young and with our old we will go; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds we will go, for we have a feast of YHWH.”
- Exodus 12:21
Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and take for yourselves animals of the flock for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb.
- Exodus 17:5
YHWH said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and your staff, with which you struck the Nile, take in your hand, and go.
- Exodus 17:6
Look, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
- Exodus 18:12
Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices for Elohim; and Aaron came, with all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before Elohim.
- Exodus 19:7
So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that YHWH had commanded him.
- Exodus 24:1
To Moses he said, “Come up to YHWH, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and bow down from a distance.
- Exodus 24:9
Moses went up, and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel,
- Exodus 24:14
To the elders he said, “Wait for us here until we return to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a matter, let him go to them.”
- Leviticus 4:15
The elders of the community shall lay their hands on the head of the bull before YHWH, and one shall slaughter the bull before YHWH.
- Leviticus 9:1
On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel.
- Leviticus 19:32
You shall rise before gray hair, and honor the face of an old man, and fear your Elohim. I am YHWH.
- Numbers 11:16
And YHWH said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and their supervisors; and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you.
- Numbers 11:24
So Moses went out and told the people the words of YHWH; and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people and placed them around the tent.
- Numbers 11:25
And YHWH came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy men, the elders; and when the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not continue.
- Numbers 11:30
And Moses withdrew to the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
- Numbers 16:25
And Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him.
- Numbers 22:4
And Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this assembly will lick up all that is around us, as the ox licks up the green growth of the field.” And Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time.
- Numbers 22:7
So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian went, with the fees for divination in their hand; and they came to Balaam and spoke to him the words of Balak.
- Deuteronomy 5:23
When you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders,
- Deuteronomy 19:12
the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he dies.
- Deuteronomy 21:2
then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure to the cities that are around the slain one.
- Deuteronomy 21:3
And the city that is nearest to the slain one, the elders of that city shall take a heifer of the herd that has not been worked and that has not pulled in a yoke.
- Deuteronomy 21:4
And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer to an ever-flowing stream, which is not worked or sown, and they shall break the neck of the heifer there in the stream.
- Deuteronomy 21:6
And all the elders of that city who are nearest to the slain one shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the stream,
- Deuteronomy 21:19
then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his place,
- Deuteronomy 21:20
and they shall say to the elders of his city, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not listen to our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.”
- Deuteronomy 22:15
then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of virginity of the young woman to the elders of the city at the gate.
- Deuteronomy 22:16
And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, “My daughter I gave to this man as a wife, and he hates her;
And 138 more times.