em · mother

What it means

em (אֵם) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “mother”.

Also figuratively, a city as the mother of its people.

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. The woman who gives birth to and raises her children, and who is owed honor.
2. A woman or chief city that cares for her own; also the point where several roads part.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Mother. BDB defines it as a mother, as the bond of the family, in a wide sense, literal and figurative.

• The mother Genesis 2:241 Kings 3:27
• “The mother of all living” Genesis 3:20
• Honoring father and mother; the instruction of the mother Exodus 20:12Proverbs 1:8
• “A mother in Israel”: a city or a woman who protects Judges 5:72 Samuel 20:19
• “The mother of the road”: the crossroads Ezekiel 21:21

How we translate it

“Mother” 214 times, “mothers” 5. It is always translated “mother”, also figuratively (“a city and a mother in Israel”); in Ezekiel 21:21, אֵם הַדֶּרֶךְ is “the crossroads”.

How it is translated

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

• mother ×214
• mothers ×5
• crossroads ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×26
• Exodus×7
• Leviticus×15
• Numbers×2
• Deuteronomy×13
• Joshua×3
• Judges×20
• Ruth×2
• 1 Samuel×4
• 2 Samuel×3
• 1 Kings×16
• 2 Kings×22
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×12
• Esther×2
• Job×3
• Psalms×12
• Proverbs×14
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Song of Songs×7
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×9
• Lamentations×3
• Ezekiel×10
• Hosea×4
• Micah×1
• Zechariah×2

• Genesis 2:24

  That is why a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.

• Genesis 3:20

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

• Genesis 20:12

  Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father, though not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

• Genesis 21:21

  He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took for him a wife from the land of Egypt.

• Genesis 24:28

  The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things.

• Genesis 24:53

  The servant brought out objects of silver and objects of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; and costly gifts he gave to her brother and to her mother.

• Genesis 24:55

  Her brother and her mother said, “Let the girl stay with us some days, or ten; after that she will go.”

• 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 27:11

  Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Look, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

• Genesis 27:13

  His mother said to him, “On me be your curse, my son; only listen to my voice, and go, get them for me.”

• 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 27:29

  May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you.”

• Genesis 28:2

  Get up, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take for yourself from there a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother.

• Genesis 28:5

  So Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

• Genesis 28:7

  and that Jacob had listened to his father and to his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.

• Genesis 29:10

  When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother.

• Genesis 30:14

  In the days of the wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to Leah his mother. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of the mandrakes of your son.”

• Genesis 32:11

  Deliver me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, the mothers with the children.

• Genesis 37:10

  He told it to his father and to his brothers, and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, to bow down before you to the ground?”

• Genesis 43:29

  He lifted his eyes and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother’s son, and said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me?” And he said, “May Elohim show you favor, my son.”

• 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 2:8

  The daughter of Pharaoh said to her, “Go.” So the young woman went and called the mother of the child.

• Exodus 20:12

  Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long on the land that YHWH your Elohim is giving you.

• Exodus 21:15

  Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

• Exodus 21:17

  Whoever curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

• Exodus 22:30

  So you shall do with your oxen and with your flock: seven days it shall be with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.

• Exodus 23:19

  The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of YHWH your Elohim. You shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

• Exodus 34:26

  The best of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of YHWH your Elohim. You shall not boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.”

• Leviticus 18:7

  The nakedness of your father and the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover; she is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness.

• Leviticus 18:9

  The nakedness of your sister, daughter of your father or daughter of your mother, born at home or born outside, you shall not uncover their nakedness.

• Leviticus 18:13

  The nakedness of your mother’s sister you shall not uncover, for she is a close relative of your mother.

• Leviticus 19:3

  Each of you shall fear his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths. I am YHWH your Elohim.

• Leviticus 20:9

  For any man who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is on him.

• Leviticus 20:14

  And a man who takes a woman and her mother — it is infamy; they shall burn him and them in the fire, so that there may not be infamy among you.

• Leviticus 20:17

  And a man who takes his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off before the eyes of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

• Leviticus 20:19

  And the nakedness of your mother’s sister or of your father’s sister you shall not uncover, for that is laying bare one’s own close relative; they shall bear their iniquity.

• Leviticus 21:2

  except for his close relative who is near to him: for his mother, for his father, for his son, for his daughter, and for his brother,

• Leviticus 21:11

  And he shall not go to any dead persons; not even for his father or for his mother shall he make himself unclean.

• Leviticus 22:27

  “When a calf or a lamb or a kid is born, it shall be seven days under its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a fire offering to YHWH.

• Leviticus 24:11

  And the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed; and they brought him to Moses. Now the name of his mother was Shelomith, daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.

And 180 more times.