behema · livestock, beast

What it means

behema (בְּהֵמָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “livestock, beast”.

Four-footed animal, above all livestock and domestic animals; sometimes all animals in contrast with human beings.

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 four-legged animal, above all farm animals.
2. Animals in general.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

A four-footed animal, above all domestic livestock; sometimes all animals as distinct from human beings. BDB: a beast, animal, cattle; often in a collective sense.

• Livestock, distinct from the animals of the field Genesis 2:20Genesis 3:14
• The animals in the ark Genesis 7:2Genesis 8:1
• Clean and unclean animals Leviticus 11:2Leviticus 20:25
• The beasts of the field and of the earth Jeremiah 7:33Psalms 8:7

How we translate it

“Livestock” 81 times, “beast” 37, “animals” 34, “beasts” 30, “animal” 8. This edition's glossary sets “livestock” for בְּהֵמָה and keeps “animal” for חַיָּה, so that Genesis shows the two groups apart (“all the livestock … every animal of the field”, Genesis 2:20). In Leviticus it is “beast”, and in Leviticus 11 it stands beside חַיָּה (“the animals that you may eat out of all the beasts”, Leviticus 11:2).

How it is translated

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

• livestock ×81
• beast ×37
• animals ×34
• beasts ×30
• animal ×8

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×21
• Exodus×18
• Leviticus×31
• Numbers×15
• Deuteronomy×18
• Joshua×4
• Judges×1
• 1 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×2
• 2 Kings×2
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Ezra×2
• Nehemiah×5
• Job×3
• Psalms×11
• Proverbs×2
• Ecclesiastes×4
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×18
• Ezekiel×12
• Joel×3
• Jonah×3
• Micah×1
• Habakkuk×1
• Zephaniah×1
• Haggai×1
• Zechariah×3

• Genesis 1:24

  And Elohim said, “Let the earth bring forth living beings according to their kind: livestock and creeping things and animals of the earth according to their kind.” And it was so.

• Genesis 1:25

  And Elohim made the animals of the earth according to their kind, and the livestock according to their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good.

• Genesis 1:26

  And Elohim said, “Let us make the human being in our image, according to our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

• Genesis 2:20

  And the man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the sky and to every animal of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helper corresponding to him.

• 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 6:7

  And YHWH said, “I will wipe out the human being whom I have created from the face of the ground, from human being to livestock, to creeping things and to the birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I made them.”

• Genesis 6:20

  Of the birds according to their kind, and of the livestock according to their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind will come to you to be kept alive.

• Genesis 7:2

  Of every clean animal you shall take for yourself seven and seven, the male and its female; and of the animals that are not clean, they are two, the male and its female;

• Genesis 7:8

  Of the clean animals and of the animals that are not clean, and of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground,

• Genesis 7:14

  they, and every animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every bird, every winged creature.

• Genesis 7:21

  And all flesh that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, animals, and all the swarming things that swarm on the earth, and all human beings.

• Genesis 7:23

  And he wiped out all that existed that was on the face of the ground, from human being to livestock, to creeping things and to the birds of the sky; and they were wiped out from the earth. And only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark.

• Genesis 8:1

  And Elohim remembered Noah and all the animals and all the livestock that were with him in the ark; and Elohim made a wind pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.

• Genesis 8:17

  Every animal that is with you, of all flesh, birds and livestock and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, bring out with you, and let them swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

• Genesis 8:20

  And Noah built an altar to YHWH, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

• Genesis 9:10

  and with every living being that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you, of all that came out of the ark, to every animal of the earth.

• Genesis 34:23

  Their livestock, their property, and all their animals, will they not be ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell with us.”

• Genesis 36:6

  Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the persons of his household, his livestock, all his animals, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to a land away from Jacob his brother.

• Genesis 47:18

  That year ended, and they came to him the second year and said to him, “We will not hide from my lord that the silver is spent and the herds of animals belong to my lord; nothing is left before my lord except our bodies and our land.

• Exodus 8:17

  They did so; Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on people and on animals; all the dust of the earth became gnats throughout all the land of Egypt.

• Exodus 8:18

  The magicians did the same by their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not. And there were gnats on people and on animals.

• Exodus 9:9

  It will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt, and it will become on people and on animals boils breaking out in blisters throughout all the land of Egypt.”

• Exodus 9:10

  So they took the soot of the kiln and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses threw it toward the sky, and it became boils with blisters breaking out on people and on animals.

• Exodus 9:19

  So now, send, bring to safety your livestock and all that you have in the field; every person and animal that is found in the field and is not brought home, the hail will come down on them, and they will die.”’”

• Exodus 9:22

  YHWH said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on people and on animals and on every plant of the field in the land of Egypt.”

• Exodus 9:25

  The hail struck, throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, from people to animals; and the hail struck every plant of the field and shattered every tree of the field.

• Exodus 11:5

  and every firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the slave woman who is behind the millstones, and every firstborn of the livestock.

• Exodus 11:7

  But against any of the sons of Israel not a dog will so much as move its tongue, against either man or beast, so that you may know that YHWH makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.’

• Exodus 12:12

  I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both people and animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am YHWH.

• Exodus 12:29

  At midnight YHWH struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock.

• Exodus 13:2

  “Consecrate to me every firstborn; the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, of people and of animals, is mine.”

• Exodus 13:12

  you shall dedicate to YHWH every first offspring of the womb, and every first offspring of the young of animals that you have; the males shall be YHWH’s.

• Exodus 13:15

  When Pharaoh hardened himself against letting us go, YHWH killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of people and the firstborn of animals. That is why I sacrifice to YHWH every first offspring of the womb that is male, but every firstborn of my sons I ransom.’

• Exodus 19:13

  No hand shall touch him, for he shall surely be stoned or surely shot with arrows; whether animal or man, he shall not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they shall go up on the mountain.”

• Exodus 20:10

  but the seventh day is a Sabbath to YHWH your Elohim. You shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave, or your female slave, or your livestock, or your resident alien who is within your gates.

• Exodus 22:10

  When a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a lamb or any animal to keep, and it dies or is injured or is carried off, with no one seeing,

• Exodus 22:19

  Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death.

• Leviticus 1:2

  “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them: When anyone of you presents an offering to YHWH, from the beasts, from the herd or from the flock you shall present your offering.

• Leviticus 5:2

  Or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether the carcass of an unclean animal, or the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of an unclean swarming thing, and it is hidden from him, he has become unclean and guilty.

• Leviticus 7:21

  And when a person touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness or an unclean beast or any unclean detestable thing, and eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace that belongs to YHWH, that person shall be cut off from his people.”

And 150 more times.