sane · hate

What it means

sane (שָׂנֵא) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “hate”.

In Hebrew it ranges from the hatred of an enemy to simply "loving less". "Those who hate you" are enemies.

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 feel rejection and hostility toward someone, to the point of wishing him harm.
2. To love one less than another, even without hating him outright.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To hate, to detest; also, in comparison, to love less. BDB: to hate, personally. From the same root comes שִׂנְאָה, “hatred”.

• Leah, “hated”, that is, less loved Genesis 29:31Deuteronomy 21:15
• The brothers hate Joseph Genesis 37:4
• “Those who hate me”: enemies Exodus 20:5
• “You shall not hate your brother in your heart” Leviticus 19:17
• What YHWH hates Proverbs 6:16Psalms 5:5Amos 5:21

Historical and cultural background

Deuteronomy 21:15-17 deals with the man who has two wives, “the one loved and the other hated”: he may not take from the son of the hated one, the firstborn, his double portion.

How we translate it

“Hate” 82 times, “hated” 35, “hates” 27, “hating” 1. “Hate” is kept also where the sense is to love less (Leah “was hated”, Genesis 29:31, with a note; and Deuteronomy 21).

How it is translated

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

• hate ×82
• hated ×35
• hates ×27
• hating ×1
• you utterly ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×7
• Exodus×4
• Leviticus×2
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×20
• Joshua×1
• Judges×4
• 2 Samuel×8
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Chronicles×3
• Esther×3
• Job×3
• Psalms×41
• Proverbs×26
• Ecclesiastes×3
• Isaiah×4
• Jeremiah×2
• Ezekiel×4
• Hosea×1
• Amos×4
• Micah×1
• Zechariah×1
• Malachi×2

• Genesis 24:60

  They blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate it.”

• Genesis 26:27

  Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, when you hated me and sent me away from you?”

• Genesis 29:31

  YHWH saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.

• Genesis 29:33

  She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because YHWH has heard that I am hated, he has given me this one too.” And she called his name Simeon.

• Genesis 37:4

  His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him and could not speak to him in peace.

• Genesis 37:5

  Joseph dreamed a dream and told it to his brothers, and they hated him even more.

• Genesis 37:8

  His brothers said to him, “Will you indeed reign over us? Or will you indeed rule over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of his words.

• Exodus 1:10

  Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will multiply, and if war breaks out, they too will join those who hate us and fight against us and go up from the land.”

• Exodus 18:21

  And you shall look for, from all the people, capable men, who fear Elohim, men of truth, who hate unjust gain; and place them over them as chiefs of thousands, chiefs of hundreds, chiefs of fifties, and chiefs of tens.

• Exodus 20:5

  You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I, YHWH your Elohim, am a jealous El, calling to account the iniquity of the fathers on the sons, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me,

• Exodus 23:5

  When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him; you shall surely help with him.

• Leviticus 19:17

  You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and you shall not bear sin because of him.

• 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.

• 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.”

• Deuteronomy 4:42

  for the manslayer to flee there, who kills his neighbor unknowingly, and he did not hate him previously, so that by fleeing to one of these cities he may live:

• Deuteronomy 5:9

  You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, YHWH your Elohim, am a jealous El, calling to account the iniquity of fathers upon children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of those who hate me,

• Deuteronomy 7:10

  and who repays those who hate him to their face, making them perish; he will not delay with the one who hates him; to his face he will repay him.

• Deuteronomy 7:15

  YHWH will remove from you all sickness; and all the evil ailments of Egypt that you know, he will not put them on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you.

• Deuteronomy 12:31

  You shall not act this way toward YHWH your Elohim, for every abomination to YHWH, which he hates, they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.

• Deuteronomy 16:22

  And you shall not set up for yourself a standing stone, which YHWH your Elohim hates.

• Deuteronomy 19:4

  And this is the case of the manslayer who flees there and lives: whoever strikes his neighbor without knowing it, and he did not hate him previously,

• Deuteronomy 19:6

  so that the avenger of blood does not pursue the manslayer while his heart is hot, and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him mortally, though he did not deserve a sentence of death, since he did not hate him previously.

• Deuteronomy 19:11

  But if there is a man who hates his neighbor, and lies in wait for him and rises against him and strikes him mortally so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities,

• Deuteronomy 21:15

  If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and they have borne him sons, the loved and the hated, and the firstborn son is the hated one's,

• Deuteronomy 21:16

  then on the day that he gives his sons as an inheritance what he has, he may not make firstborn the son of the loved one in place of the son of the hated one, the firstborn.

• Deuteronomy 21:17

  But the firstborn, the son of the hated one, he shall acknowledge by giving him a double portion of all that is found to be his, for he is the firstfruits of his vigor; to him belongs the right of the firstborn.

• Deuteronomy 22:13

  If a man takes a wife and goes in to her and hates her,

• Deuteronomy 22:16

  And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, “My daughter I gave to this man as a wife, and he hates her;

• Deuteronomy 24:3

  and the latter man hates her and writes for her a document of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her away from his house, or if the latter man who took her to himself as a wife dies,

• Deuteronomy 30:7

  And YHWH your Elohim will put all these oaths of imprecation on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you.

• Deuteronomy 32:41

  if I sharpen the lightning of my sword and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will return vengeance to my adversaries and repay those who hate me.

• Deuteronomy 33:11

  Bless, YHWH, his strength, and accept the work of his hands; crush the loins of those who rise up against him and of those who hate him, so that they do not rise again.”

• Joshua 20:5

  And if the avenger of blood pursues him, they shall not hand over the manslayer into his hand, because he struck his neighbor unknowingly, and did not hate him beforehand.

• Judges 11:7

  Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did not you hate me and drive me out of the house of my father? Why have you come to me now, when you are in distress?”

• Judges 14:16

  So the wife of Samson wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. The riddle you have proposed to the sons of my people, but to me you have not explained it.” And he said to her, “Look, to my father and to my mother I have not explained it, and to you should I explain it?”

• Judges 15:2

  And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Let her be yours, please, instead of her.”

• 2 Samuel 5:8

  David said on that day, “Whoever strikes the Jebusite, let him reach through the channel the lame and the blind, hated by the soul of David.” Therefore they say, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.”

• 2 Samuel 13:15

  Then Amnon hated her with a very great hatred, for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up, go.”

• 2 Samuel 13:22

  Absalom did not speak with Amnon anything, bad or good, for Absalom hated Amnon because he had humiliated Tamar his sister.

• 2 Samuel 19:6

  by loving those who hate you and hating those who love you. For you have made known today that commanders and servants are nothing to you; for I know today that if Absalom were alive and all of us dead today, then it would be right in your eyes.

And 106 more times.