Grow With Me
Grow With Me

אֹיֵב

oyev · enemy

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H341 · appears 282 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

oyev (אֹיֵב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “enemy”.

Foe: one who hates and opposes another.

How to say it

o·yev

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. Someone who hates and opposes another.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Enemy. BDB defines it as one who hates, an adversary; it is the participle of אָיַב, “be hostile, hate”.

Historical and cultural background

Exodus 23:4 commands that a stray ox or donkey belonging to “your enemy” be brought back to him.

How we translate it

“Enemies” 201 times, “enemy” 81. This edition translates אֹיֵב “enemy” and צַר “adversary”, so that the two words are told apart.

How it is translated

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

  • enemies ×201
  • enemy ×81

Where it appears

  • 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 49:8

    Judah, you your brothers will praise; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father will bow down to you.

  • Exodus 15:6

    Your right hand, YHWH, is majestic in power; your right hand, YHWH, shatters the enemy.

  • Exodus 15:9

    The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the plunder; my soul will have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

  • Exodus 23:4

    When you come upon your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him.

  • Exodus 23:22

    But if you indeed listen to his voice and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

  • Exodus 23:27

    My terror I will send before you, and I will throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.

  • Leviticus 26:7

    And you will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.

  • Leviticus 26:8

    And five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall before you by the sword.

  • Leviticus 26:16

    then I will do this to you: I will appoint over you terror, wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and drain the life; and you will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.

  • Leviticus 26:17

    And I will set my face against you, and you will be struck down before your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.

  • Leviticus 26:25

    And I will bring on you a sword that avenges the vengeance of the covenant; and when you gather into your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you will be given into the hand of the enemy.

  • Leviticus 26:32

    And I will lay waste the land, and your enemies who live in it will be appalled at it.

  • Leviticus 26:34

    Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will cease and enjoy its Sabbaths.

  • Leviticus 26:36

    And as for those who are left of you, I will bring faintness into their heart in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a driven leaf will pursue them, and they will flee as one flees from the sword, and fall when no one is pursuing.

  • Leviticus 26:37

    And they will stumble, one over another, as before the sword, when no one is pursuing; and you will have no power to stand before your enemies.

  • Leviticus 26:38

    And you will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will eat you up.

  • Leviticus 26:39

    And those who are left of you will waste away in their iniquity in the lands of your enemies; and also in the iniquities of their fathers with them they will waste away.

  • Leviticus 26:41

    I also walked with them in opposition and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and then they accept the payment for their iniquity,

  • Leviticus 26:44

    Yet even for all this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them and I will not loathe them so as to destroy them completely and break my covenant with them; for I am YHWH their Elohim.

  • Numbers 10:9

    And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who harasses you, you shall sound an acclamation with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before YHWH your Elohim, and you will be saved from your enemies.

  • Numbers 10:35

    And whenever the ark set out, Moses would say, “Rise up, YHWH, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee from before you.”

  • Numbers 14:42

    Do not go up, for YHWH is not in your midst, so that you will not be struck down before your enemies.

  • Numbers 23:11

    And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have done nothing but bless them!”

  • Numbers 24:10

    And Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “To curse my enemies I called you, and look, you have done nothing but bless them these three times!

  • Numbers 24:18

    And Edom shall be a possession, and Seir, his enemies, shall be a possession, while Israel does valiantly.

  • Numbers 32:21

    and every armed man of you crosses the Jordan before YHWH until he has dispossessed his enemies from before him,

  • Numbers 35:23

    or with any stone by which one may die, without seeing him, he let it fall on him and he died, while he was not his enemy and was not seeking his harm,

  • Deuteronomy 1:42

    YHWH said to me, “Say to them, ‘Do not go up and do not fight, for I am not among you, so that you are not struck down before your enemies.’”

  • Deuteronomy 6:19

    pushing all your enemies from before you, as YHWH has spoken.

  • Deuteronomy 12:10

    But you will cross the Jordan and live in the land that YHWH your Elohim is causing you to inherit, and he will give rest to you from all your enemies around, and you will live in security.

  • Deuteronomy 20:1

    When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots, a people more numerous than you, you shall not be afraid of them, for YHWH your Elohim is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.

  • Deuteronomy 20:3

    and say to them, “Hear, Israel: you are drawing near today to war against your enemies. Do not let your heart grow soft; do not be afraid, and do not panic, and do not be terrified before them,

  • Deuteronomy 20:4

    for YHWH your Elohim is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”

  • Deuteronomy 20:14

    Only the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you may take as plunder for yourself; and you may eat the spoil of your enemies, which YHWH your Elohim has given you.

  • Deuteronomy 21:10

    When you go out to war against your enemies, and YHWH your Elohim gives them into your hand, and you take captives from them,

  • Deuteronomy 23:9

    When you go out as a camp against your enemies, you shall guard yourself from every evil thing.

  • Deuteronomy 23:14

    For YHWH your Elohim walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to give your enemies before you; so your camp shall be holy, so that he may not see among you the nakedness of anything and turn away from you.

  • Deuteronomy 25:19

    Therefore it shall be, when YHWH your Elohim has given rest to you from all your enemies around, in the land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you as an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heavens. You shall not forget.

  • Deuteronomy 28:7

    YHWH will make your enemies who rise up against you defeated before you; they will come out against you by one way and flee before you by seven ways.

And 242 more times.