nachash · serpent

What it means

nachash (נָחָשׁ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “serpent”.

Snake. In Genesis 3 the text presents it as one of the animals of the field that God had made, and it speaks. Later the Bible calls the devil "the ancient serpent" (Revelation 12:9; 20:2).

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. A legless reptile that crawls and often bites with venom.
2. Moses' bronze serpent.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• serpent ×24
• snake ×4
• serpents ×3

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×6
• Exodus×2
• Numbers×5
• Deuteronomy×1
• 2 Kings×1
• Job×1
• Psalms×2
• Proverbs×2
• Ecclesiastes×2
• Isaiah×4
• Jeremiah×2
• Amos×2
• Micah×1

• Genesis 3:1

  Now the serpent was more shrewd than any animal of the field that YHWH Elohim had made. And it said to the woman, “Did Elohim really say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

• Genesis 3:2

  And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;

• Genesis 3:4

  And the serpent said to the woman, “You will certainly not die;

• Genesis 3:13

  And YHWH Elohim said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

• Genesis 3:14

  And YHWH Elohim said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you from among all the livestock and from among every animal of the field; on your belly you will go, and dust you will eat all the days of your life.

• Genesis 49:17

  Dan will be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that its rider falls backward.

• Exodus 4:3

  He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from it.

• Exodus 7:15

  Go to Pharaoh in the morning; look, he is going out to the water. Station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile, and the staff that was turned into a serpent you shall take in your hand.

• Numbers 21:6

  Then YHWH sent among the people the fiery serpents, and they bit the people, and many people of Israel died.

• Numbers 21:7

  And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against YHWH and against you. Pray to YHWH, that he may take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

• Numbers 21:9

  So Moses made a serpent of bronze and set it on the pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look to the serpent of bronze and live.

• Deuteronomy 8:15

  who led you through the great and fearsome wilderness, with burning serpent and scorpion, and parched ground where there was no water, who brought out for you water from the rock of flint,

• 2 Kings 18:4

  He removed the high places, broke the standing stones, and cut down the Asherah; and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.

• Job 26:13

  By his breath the heavens became beautiful; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

• Psalms 58:4

  They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like a deaf cobra that stops its ear,

• Psalms 140:3

  They sharpen their tongue like a serpent; the venom of an asp is under their lips. Selah.

• Proverbs 23:32

  In the end it bites like a serpent, and like a viper it stings.

• Proverbs 30:19

  the way of the eagle in the heavens, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the heart of the sea, and the way of a man with a young woman.

• Ecclesiastes 10:8

  Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever breaks through a fence, a snake will bite him.

• Ecclesiastes 10:11

  If the snake bites without a charm, there is no profit for the owner of the tongue.

• Isaiah 14:29

  Do not rejoice, Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for from the root of the serpent will come out a cobra, and its fruit will be a flying fiery serpent.

• Isaiah 27:1

  On that day YHWH will punish, with his sword —the hard, the great, and the strong— Leviathan the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the sea monster that is in the sea.

• Isaiah 65:25

  The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion like the ox will eat straw; and the serpent, dust will be its bread; they will not do evil or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says YHWH.

• Jeremiah 8:17

  “For look, I am sending among you serpents, vipers for which there is no charm, and they will bite you, declares YHWH.”

• Jeremiah 46:22

  Her sound is like a serpent that goes off; for with an army they march, and with axes they come against her, like woodcutters.

• Amos 5:19

  As when a man flees from the lion, and the bear meets him; or goes into the house and leans his hand against the wall, and the snake bites him.

• Amos 9:3

  And if they hide on the top of Carmel, from there I will search out and take them; and if they conceal themselves from my sight on the floor of the sea, from there I will command the snake, and it will bite them.

• Micah 7:17

  They will lick dust like the serpent, like the crawling things of the earth; they will come trembling out of their enclosures; before YHWH our Elohim they will tremble in dread, and they will be afraid of you.

And 3 more times.