יָם
yam · sea, west
Hebrew word · Strong’s number H3220 · appears 396 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
yam (יָם) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “sea, west”.
Sea, or any great body of water (also a lake). Since the Mediterranean lies west of Israel, the word also means "west".
How to say it
yam
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
- The sea, or a large lake.
- Literally "the sea": the side where the sun sets.
- The great bronze basin of the temple.
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)
Word study
Sea, or any great body of water. With the article it names above all the Mediterranean, and from there it also means “the west”, because the Mediterranean lies west of Israel.
- The sea, the gathered waters Genesis 1:10
- The Sea of Reeds Exodus 15:4
- The west Genesis 28:14Exodus 10:19
- “The Great Sea”, the western border Numbers 34:6
- “The Sea”: the great bronze basin of the temple 1 Kings 7:23
Historical and cultural background
Numbers 34:6 sets the Great Sea as the western border of the land; that is why “toward the sea” means “toward the west”.
How we translate it
“Sea” 322 times, “seas” 30, “west” 27, “westward” 15. יַם־סוּף is translated “Sea of Reeds”, because that is what the Hebrew says, not “Red”; a note explains it. When the word marks a direction, it is translated “west”, “westward” or “western”.
How it is translated
The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.
- sea ×322
- seas ×30
- west ×27
- westward ×15
- western border ×2
Related words
Words that come from it
Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.
Where it appears
- Genesis×13
- Exodus×39
- Leviticus×2
- Numbers×19
- Deuteronomy×14
- Joshua×52
- Judges×3
- 1 Samuel×1
- 2 Samuel×2
- 1 Kings×16
- 2 Kings×4
- 1 Chronicles×3
- 2 Chronicles×11
- Ezra×1
- Nehemiah×4
- Esther×1
- Job×12
- Psalms×38
- Proverbs×3
- Ecclesiastes×2
- Isaiah×31
- Jeremiah×18
- Lamentations×1
- Ezekiel×60
- Daniel×2
- Hosea×3
- Joel×2
- Amos×5
- Jonah×12
- Micah×3
- Nahum×3
- Habakkuk×4
- Zephaniah×3
- Haggai×1
- Zechariah×8
- Genesis 1:10
And Elohim called the dry ground “Earth,” and the gathering of the waters he called “Seas.” And Elohim saw that it was good.
- Genesis 1:22
And Elohim blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
- 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 1:28
And Elohim blessed them, and Elohim said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every animal that creeps on the earth.”
- Genesis 9:2
And the fear and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the sky, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are given.
- 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 13:14
YHWH said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up now your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward;
- Genesis 14:3
All these joined forces at the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).
- Genesis 22:17
that I will surely bless you and will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the shore of the sea; and your offspring will possess the gate of its enemies.
- Genesis 28:14
Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the ground will be blessed in you and in your offspring.
- Genesis 32:12
But you said, ‘I will surely deal well with you and make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because of its abundance.’”
- Genesis 41:49
Joseph stored up grain like the sand of the sea, very much, until he stopped counting, for it was without number.
- Genesis 49:13
Zebulun will dwell at the shore of the seas; he will be a shore for ships, and his border will be toward Sidon.
- Exodus 10:19
And YHWH turned it into a very strong west wind, which lifted the locusts and drove them into the Sea of Reeds; not a single locust remained in all the territory of Egypt.
- Exodus 13:18
So Elohim led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Sea of Reeds. And the sons of Israel went up in battle formation from the land of Egypt.
- Exodus 14:2
“Speak to the sons of Israel, that they turn back and camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before Baal-zephon; opposite it you shall camp, by the sea.
- Exodus 14:9
The Egyptians pursued them and overtook them camping by the sea, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army, near Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon.
- Exodus 14:16
And you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and split it, so that the sons of Israel may go into the midst of the sea on dry ground.
- Exodus 14:21
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and YHWH drove back the sea by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were split.
- Exodus 14:22
The sons of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right and on their left.
- Exodus 14:23
The Egyptians pursued and went in after them, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen, into the midst of the sea.
- Exodus 14:26
YHWH said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots, and over their horsemen.”
- Exodus 14:27
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned as morning appeared to its normal flow; and the Egyptians, fleeing, met it; and YHWH shook off the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.
- Exodus 14:28
The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, all the army of Pharaoh that had gone after them into the sea; not even one of them remained.
- Exodus 14:29
But the sons of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right and on their left.
- Exodus 14:30
So YHWH saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea.
- Exodus 15:1
Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to YHWH, and they said: “I will sing to YHWH, for he is highly exalted; horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.
- Exodus 15:4
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has cast into the sea; and his choicest captains were sunk in the Sea of Reeds.
- Exodus 15:8
By the breath of your nostrils the waters piled up; the streams stood up like a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.
- Exodus 15:10
You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
- Exodus 15:19
For when the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, YHWH brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the sons of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.
- Exodus 15:21
And Miriam answered them, “Sing to YHWH, for he is highly exalted; horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.”
- Exodus 15:22
Then Moses led Israel onward from the Sea of Reeds, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.
- Exodus 20:11
For in six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; that is why YHWH blessed the day of the Sabbath and made it holy.
- Exodus 23:31
I will set your border from the Sea of Reeds to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River, for I will give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and you shall drive them out from before you.
- Exodus 26:22
For the rear of the dwelling, westward, you shall make six boards.
- Exodus 26:27
and five bars for the boards of the second side of the dwelling, and five bars for the boards of the side of the dwelling at the rear, westward.
- Exodus 27:12
For the width of the courtyard on the west side there shall be hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten and their bases ten.
- Exodus 36:27
And for the rear of the dwelling westward he made six boards.
- Exodus 36:32
and five bars for the boards of the second side of the dwelling, and five bars for the boards of the dwelling at the rear westward.
And 356 more times.