kana · acquire, buy

What it means

kana (קָנָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “acquire, buy”.

Acquire, get, buy; own. Sometimes "create" or "form".

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 get something: "get wisdom".
2. To give silver in order to become the owner of something.
3. To be the owner of something; the one who possesses it.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To acquire, to get; from there to buy and to own. Of God, ‘the one who acquired’ or the owner of the heavens and the earth. From the same root come מִקְנֶה, “livestock” (H4735), and קִנְיָן, “goods”.

• “I have acquired a man with YHWH” Genesis 4:1
• Buying a field: Abraham, Jeremiah Genesis 25:10Jeremiah 32:9
• Boaz acquires the field and Ruth Ruth 4:9Ruth 4:10
• YHWH acquires his people; the owner Exodus 15:16Genesis 14:19Isaiah 1:3
• “Acquire wisdom” Proverbs 4:5

Historical and cultural background

Jeremiah buys his cousin's field in Anathoth and weighs out to him “seventeen shekels of silver” (Jeremiah 32:9). Ruth 4:9-10 shows the purchase before witnesses at the city gate.

How we translate it

“Buy” 25 times, “bought” 21, “acquire” 13, “acquired” 6, “buyer” 4; “owner” 3 as a participle (“owner of the heavens and earth”, Genesis 14:19). In Ruth 4 it is “acquired” both for the field and for Ruth (Ruth 4:9-10), because it is the same verb.

How it is translated

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

• buy ×25
• bought ×21
• acquire ×13
• acquired ×6
• buyer ×4
• I have acquired ×3
• acquires ×3
• owner ×3
• acquired me ×2
• I will surely ×1
• others ×4

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×12
• Exodus×2
• Leviticus×9
• Deuteronomy×2
• Joshua×1
• Ruth×6
• 2 Samuel×5
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Kings×2
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Nehemiah×2
• Psalms×3
• Proverbs×14
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×4
• Jeremiah×13
• Ezekiel×2
• Amos×1
• Zechariah×2

• 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 14:19

  He blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram of El Elyon, owner of the heavens and earth;

• Genesis 14:22

  But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to YHWH, El Elyon, owner of the heavens and earth,

• Genesis 25:10

  the field that Abraham had bought from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife.

• Genesis 33:19

  He bought the piece of the field where he had pitched his tent from the hand of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred qesitah.

• Genesis 39:1

  Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh, the chief of the guard, an Egyptian man, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.

• Genesis 47:19

  Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh; and give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and the land will not become desolate.”

• Genesis 47:20

  So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for the Egyptians sold each man his field, because the famine was strong upon them; and the land became Pharaoh’s.

• Genesis 47:22

  Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they ate their allotment that Pharaoh gave them; therefore they did not sell their land.

• Genesis 47:23

  Joseph said to the people, “Look, I have bought you today, and your land, for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you; sow the land.

• Genesis 49:30

  in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is facing Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place.

• Genesis 50:13

  his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, the field that Abraham bought as a possession for a burial place from Ephron the Hittite, facing Mamre.

• Exodus 15:16

  Terror and dread fell upon them; by the greatness of your arm they were as still as a stone, until your people, YHWH, passed by, until the people whom you acquired passed by.

• Exodus 21:2

  When you buy a Hebrew slave, six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free, without payment.

• Leviticus 22:11

  But if a priest buys a person, the purchase of his silver, he may eat of it, and those born in his house, they may eat of his food.

• Leviticus 25:14

  And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from the hand of your neighbor, you shall not take advantage of one another.

• Leviticus 25:15

  According to the number of years after the jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor; according to the number of years of harvests he shall sell to you.

• Leviticus 25:28

  But if his hand does not find enough to give back to him, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the one who bought it until the year of jubilee; and in the jubilee it shall go free, and he shall return to his possession.

• Leviticus 25:30

  But if it is not redeemed before a full year is completed for it, then the house that is in the city that has a wall shall belong in perpetuity to the one who bought it, throughout his generations; it shall not go free in the jubilee.

• Leviticus 25:44

  As for your male slave and your female slave whom you may have, from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy a male slave and a female slave.

• Leviticus 25:45

  And also from the sons of the temporary residents who reside with you, from them you may buy, and from their clans that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land; and they may be yours as a possession.

• Leviticus 25:50

  And he shall calculate with the one who bought him from the year he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the silver of his sale shall be according to the number of years; as the days of a hired worker it shall be with him.

• Leviticus 27:24

  In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom he bought it, to the one to whom the possession of the land belongs.

• Deuteronomy 28:68

  And YHWH will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, “You shall never see it again.” And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male slaves and female slaves, and there will be no buyer.

• Deuteronomy 32:6

  Is it to YHWH you repay this, foolish and unwise people? Is he not your father, who acquired you? He made you and established you.

• Joshua 24:32

  And the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel had brought up from Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the plot of the field that Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred qesitahs; and it became the inheritance of the sons of Joseph.

• Ruth 4:4

  And I said to myself: I will let you know, saying, ‘Acquire it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem, redeem; but if one does not redeem, tell me, so that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem, and I am after you.’” And he said, “I will redeem.”

• Ruth 4:5

  Then Boaz said, “On the day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the dead man, you acquire it to raise up the name of the dead man on his inheritance.”

• Ruth 4:8

  So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, “Acquire it for yourself.” And he took off his sandal.

• Ruth 4:9

  Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I have acquired all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon from the hand of Naomi.

• Ruth 4:10

  And also Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, I have acquired for myself as wife, to raise up the name of the dead man on his inheritance, so that the name of the dead man may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today.”

• 2 Samuel 12:3

  but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb that he had acquired. He raised it, and it grew up with him and with his sons together; from his morsel it would eat, and from his cup it would drink, and in his bosom it would lie; and it was to him like a daughter.

• 2 Samuel 24:21

  Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy from you the threshing floor, to build an altar to YHWH, so that the plague may be stopped from the people.”

• 2 Samuel 24:24

  The king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; and I will not offer up to YHWH my Elohim burnt offerings for nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

• 1 Kings 16:24

  He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and he built on the hill; and he called the name of the city that he built after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill, Samaria.

• 2 Kings 12:12

  and to the masons and to the stonecutters, and to buy timber and quarried stones to repair the breaches of the house of YHWH, and for all that was spent on the house to repair it.

• 2 Kings 22:6

  to the carpenters, the builders, and the masons, and to buy timber and quarried stone to repair the house.

• 1 Chronicles 21:24

  King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will certainly buy it for the full price; for I will not take what is yours for YHWH, nor offer a burnt offering for nothing.”

• 2 Chronicles 34:11

  They gave it to the craftsmen and to the builders, to buy quarried stones and timber for the clamps, and to provide beams for the houses that the kings of Judah had destroyed.

• Nehemiah 5:8

  and said to them, “We have bought our brothers, the Jews who were sold to the nations, according to what was in us; and will you also sell your brothers, so that they may be sold to us?” And they were silent and did not find a word.

And 45 more times.