ish · man, husband, each

What it means

ish (אִישׁ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “man, husband, each”.

Man, male; with a possessive, husband. Also "each one", "anyone". It is "ish", distinct from "adam" (human being); it is used for the man in contrast with the woman ("ishah").

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. An adult male person; also each man of a people, a trade or a place.
2. Literally "her man": the one married to her.
3. Literally "a man": any person; with "not", not a single person.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Man, male; with a possessive, husband. It often goes with another word and then is not translated separately. In Genesis 2:23 it is paired with אִשָּׁה, “woman”.

• Man, male Genesis 2:23Genesis 2:24
• Husband Genesis 3:6
• “Each man”, “each one”; with a negative, “no one” Judges 17:6Genesis 11:3
• “Man of Elohim”: a title of a prophet Deuteronomy 33:11 Samuel 9:6

Historical and cultural background

Genesis 2:23 plays on the likeness between ish and ishah: “this one will be called Woman, because from Man this one was taken”.

How we translate it

“Man” 978 times, “men” 732, “each” 264, “husband” 66, “anyone” 22. This edition's glossary keeps three words apart: אָדָם, “human being” or “the man”; אִישׁ, “man, male”; and אֱנוֹשׁ, “mortal”. In the reciprocal phrase “each to his companion”, English says “to one another” (Genesis 11:3).

How it is translated

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

• man ×978
• men ×732
• each ×264
• one ×77
• husband ×66
• anyone ×22
• another ×7
• husbands ×4
• none ×4
• soldiers ×4
• others ×28

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×159
• Exodus×96
• Leviticus×94
• Numbers×131
• Deuteronomy×90
• Joshua×72
• Judges×199
• Ruth×21
• 1 Samuel×211
• 2 Samuel×141
• 1 Kings×85
• 2 Kings×127
• 1 Chronicles×41
• 2 Chronicles×56
• Ezra×14
• Nehemiah×44
• Esther×19
• Job×42
• Psalms×45
• Proverbs×91
• Ecclesiastes×10
• Song of Songs×3
• Isaiah×64
• Jeremiah×161
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×89
• Daniel×8
• Hosea×10
• Joel×4
• Amos×3
• Obadiah×3
• Jonah×9
• Micah×8
• Nahum×1
• Zephaniah×4
• Haggai×3
• Zechariah×23
• Malachi×4

• Genesis 2:23

  And the man said, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called Woman, because from Man this one was taken.”

• 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 3:6

  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 3:16

  To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your toil and your pregnancies; with pain you will give birth to children; and toward your husband will be your desire, and he will rule over you.”

• Genesis 4:1

  Now the man knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, “I have acquired a man with YHWH.”

• Genesis 4:23

  And Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my saying: for a man I have killed for wounding me, and a young man for striking me.

• Genesis 6:4

  The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of Elohim went in to the daughters of human beings and they bore children to them; they were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

• Genesis 6:9

  These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; with Elohim Noah walked.

• 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 9:5

  And surely your blood, for your lives, I will require; from the hand of every animal I will require it, and from the hand of the human being, from the hand of each one for his brother, I will require the life of the human being.

• Genesis 9:20

  And Noah, a man of the ground, was the first to plant a vineyard.

• Genesis 10:5

  From these the coastlands of the nations separated into their lands, each according to his language, according to their families, in their nations.

• Genesis 11:3

  They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.

• Genesis 11:7

  Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that no one will understand the language of his neighbor.”

• Genesis 12:20

  Pharaoh gave orders to men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

• Genesis 13:8

  Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between me and you, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are men, brothers.

• Genesis 13:11

  So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward; and they separated, each from his brother.

• Genesis 13:13

  Now the men of Sodom were evil and great sinners against YHWH.

• Genesis 13:16

  I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.

• Genesis 14:24

  Nothing for me; only what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre: let them take their share.”

• 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 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 17:23

  Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house and all those bought with his silver, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskin on that very day, as Elohim had told him.

• Genesis 17:27

  and all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with silver from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.

• Genesis 18:2

  He lifted his eyes and looked, and look, three men were standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed down to the ground.

• Genesis 18:16

  Then the men got up from there and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them on their way.

• Genesis 18:22

  The men turned from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before YHWH.

• Genesis 19:4

  Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from young to old, all the people from every quarter.

• Genesis 19:5

  They called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.”

• Genesis 19:8

  Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man; let me bring them out to you, and do to them as is good in your eyes; only to these men do not do anything, for that is why they have come under the shadow of my roof.”

• Genesis 19:9

  But they said, “Step aside!” And they said, “This one came to reside as an alien, and he keeps acting as judge! Now we will do worse to you than to them.” And they pressed hard against the man, against Lot, and came near to break the door.

• Genesis 19:10

  But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

• Genesis 19:11

  And the men who were at the entrance of the house they struck with blindness, from small to great, so that they wore themselves out trying to find the entrance.

• Genesis 19:12

  Then the men said to Lot, “Whom else do you have here? A son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place,

• Genesis 19:16

  But he lingered; so the men seized his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hand of his two daughters, because of YHWH’s compassion for him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

• Genesis 19:31

  The older said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in to us after the manner of all the earth.

• Genesis 20:7

  Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will surely die, you and all who are yours.”

• Genesis 20:8

  So Abimelech rose early in the morning and called all his servants and told all these things in their ears; and the men were very afraid.

• Genesis 23:6

  “Hear us, my lord: you are a chief of Elohim among us. In the choicest of our graves bury your dead. No one of us will withhold his grave from you for burying your dead.”

• Genesis 24:13

  Look, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.

And 2146 more times.