natan · give, put, set

What it means

natan (נָתַן) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “give, put, set”.

Give, in a very wide sense: hand over, put, place, grant, allow, make something be.

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. To hand something over to someone: a gift, a payment, a charge or a land.
2. To place something somewhere.
3. To make someone something: "I have made you a father".
4. To hand someone over to another's power, giving that one victory.
5. To let something happen.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Give, in a very wide sense: hand over, put, place, grant, make something be. BDB adds “constitute”. From this verb come names like Nathan, Jonathan and Nathanael.

• To give Genesis 1:29Genesis 3:6Genesis 15:18
• To put, to place Genesis 9:13
• To give someone “into the hand” of another: to give him victory over him Joshua 6:2
• To make, to appoint: “I have made you the father” Genesis 17:5

How we translate it

“Give” 565 times, “gave” 345, “put” 267, “given” 114, “set” 70. English chooses between “give”, “put”, “set” or “make” according to the object. In נָתַן בְּיַד this edition keeps the image of the hand: “give into your hand” (Joshua 6:2).

How it is translated

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

• give ×565
• gave ×345
• put ×267
• given ×114
• giving ×77
• has given ×73
• set ×70
• gives ×65
• I have given ×56
• be given ×43
• others ×336

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×150
• Exodus×115
• Leviticus×86
• Numbers×120
• Deuteronomy×176
• Joshua×89
• Judges×69
• Ruth×8
• 1 Samuel×72
• 2 Samuel×30
• 1 Kings×111
• 2 Kings×60
• 1 Chronicles×40
• 2 Chronicles×114
• Ezra×19
• Nehemiah×43
• Esther×29
• Job×33
• Psalms×95
• Proverbs×34
• Ecclesiastes×25
• Song of Songs×7
• Isaiah×56
• Jeremiah×148
• Lamentations×9
• Ezekiel×208
• Daniel×17
• Hosea×12
• Joel×8
• Amos×4
• Obadiah×1
• Jonah×2
• Micah×7
• Habakkuk×1
• Zephaniah×2
• Haggai×1
• Zechariah×7
• Malachi×3

• Genesis 1:17

  And Elohim set them in the vault of the heavens to give light on the earth,

• Genesis 1:29

  And Elohim said, “Look, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that has fruit yielding seed; it will be food for you.

• Genesis 3:6

  And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable for gaining insight; and she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

• Genesis 3:12

  And the man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”

• Genesis 4:12

  When you work the ground, it will no longer give its strength to you; a wanderer and a drifter you will be 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 9:3

  Every creeping thing that is alive will be food for you; as the green plants, I give you everything.

• Genesis 9:12

  And Elohim said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am giving between me and you and every living being that is with you, for generations forever:

• Genesis 9:13

  my bow I have put in the cloud, and it will be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

• Genesis 12:7

  Then YHWH appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to YHWH, who had appeared to him.

• Genesis 13:15

  for all the land that you see I will give it to you and to your offspring forever.

• Genesis 13:17

  Get up, walk through the land along its length and along its width, for to you I will give it.”

• Genesis 14:20

  and blessed be El Elyon, who has delivered your adversaries into your hand.” And he gave him a tenth of everything.

• Genesis 14:21

  The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the persons, and take the possessions for yourself.”

• Genesis 15:2

  But Abram said, “Adonai YHWH, what will you give me, while I go on childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”

• Genesis 15:3

  And Abram said, “Look, to me you have not given offspring; and look, one born in my house will be my heir.”

• Genesis 15:7

  And he said to him, “I am YHWH who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it.”

• Genesis 15:10

  He brought him all these and cut them in two down the middle, and laid each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not cut in two.

• Genesis 15:18

  On that day YHWH made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

• Genesis 16:3

  So Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave woman, at the end of ten years of Abram’s living in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.

• Genesis 16:5

  Then Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done to me be on you! I myself gave my slave woman into your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, I became of little account in her eyes. May YHWH judge between me and you.”

• Genesis 17:2

  I will set my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”

• Genesis 17:5

  No longer will your name be called Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

• Genesis 17:6

  I will make you fruitful exceedingly, and I will make you into nations, and kings will come from you.

• Genesis 17:8

  And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land where you reside as an alien, all the land of Canaan, as an eternal possession; and I will be their Elohim.”

• Genesis 17:16

  I will bless her, and also I will give you a son by her; I will bless her, and she will become nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

• Genesis 17:20

  As for Ishmael, I have heard you; look, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly. He will father twelve chiefs, and I will make him into a great nation.

• Genesis 18:7

  And to the herd Abraham ran, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the young man, who hurried to prepare it.

• Genesis 18:8

  He took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

• Genesis 20:6

  Then Elohim said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this; and I also kept back you from sinning against me; that is why I did not let you touch her.

• Genesis 20:14

  Then Abimelech took sheep and cattle, and male slaves and female slaves, and gave them to Abraham, and he returned to him Sarah his wife.

• Genesis 20:16

  And to Sarah he said, “Look, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; look, it is for you a covering for the eyes for all who are with you; and before everyone you are vindicated.”

• Genesis 21:14

  Abraham rose early in the morning, took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and also the child, and sent her away. She went and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

• Genesis 21:27

  Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.

• Genesis 23:4

  “I am a resident alien and a guest among you. Give me a possession for a grave among you, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

• Genesis 23:9

  that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him, which is at the end of his field. For the full amount of silver let him give it to me among you as a possession for a grave.”

• Genesis 23:11

  “No, my lord, hear me: the field I give you, and the cave that is in it I give it to you. In the sight of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.”

• Genesis 23:13

  and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If only you would hear me! I give the silver for the field; take it from me, and let me bury my dead there.”

• Genesis 24:7

  YHWH, the Elohim of the heavens, who took me from the house of my father and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.

• Genesis 24:32

  The man came into the house, and he unloaded the camels and gave straw and fodder to the camels and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.

And 1971 more times.