lechem · bread, food

What it means

lechem (לֶחֶם) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “bread, food”.

Bread; in a wide sense, food.

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. Food made of kneaded, baked flour: the basis of each day's meal.
2. Everything eaten at the table, even if it is not bread.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Bread; in a wide sense, food. BDB defines it as food, for man or beast, especially bread or the grain for making it. Bethlehem, בֵּית לֶחֶם, is “house of bread”.

• Bread, daily food Genesis 3:19Deuteronomy 8:3
• “Eat bread”: to sit down to a meal Genesis 37:25
• Bread that comes from heaven Exodus 16:4
• The bread of the presence, in the sanctuary Exodus 25:30
• “Bread of affliction”, and bread with wine Deuteronomy 16:3Genesis 14:18

Historical and cultural background

Deuteronomy 16:3 calls the unleavened bread of the Passover “the bread of affliction”, “for in haste you came out of the land of Egypt”.

How we translate it

“Bread” 266 times, “food” 24, “loaves” 4, “meal” 2. It is translated “bread” wherever it is understood, also in “they sat down to eat bread” (Genesis 37:25); when the word plainly names food in general, “food”.

How it is translated

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

• bread ×266
• food ×24
• loaves ×4
• meal ×2
• fruit ×1
• there was a round loaf ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×24
• Exodus×21
• Leviticus×24
• Numbers×7
• Deuteronomy×8
• Joshua×2
• Judges×7
• Ruth×2
• 1 Samuel×27
• 2 Samuel×13
• 1 Kings×24
• 2 Kings×8
• 1 Chronicles×4
• 2 Chronicles×3
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×6
• Job×11
• Psalms×19
• Proverbs×23
• Ecclesiastes×4
• Isaiah×16
• Jeremiah×10
• Lamentations×4
• Ezekiel×20
• Daniel×1
• Hosea×3
• Amos×3
• Obadiah×1
• Haggai×1
• Malachi×1

• Genesis 3:19

  By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for from it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.”

• Genesis 14:18

  And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of El Elyon.

• Genesis 18:5

  And I will bring a morsel of bread, and refresh your hearts; after that you may go on, since that is why you have come by your servant.” They said, “Do so, as you have said.”

• 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 25:34

  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, rose, and went away. So Esau despised the birthright.

• Genesis 27:17

  She gave the tasty food and the bread that she had made into the hand of Jacob her son.

• Genesis 28:20

  Jacob made a vow, saying, “If Elohim is with me and keeps me on this way that I am going, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear,

• Genesis 31:54

  Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his brothers to eat bread; they ate bread and spent the night on the mountain.

• Genesis 37:25

  Then they sat down to eat bread; and they lifted their eyes and looked, and look, a caravan of Ishmaelites was coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying aromatic gum, balm, and ladanum, on their way to take it down to Egypt.

• Genesis 39:6

  He left all that he had in the hand of Joseph, and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the bread that he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome.

• Genesis 41:54

  and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

• Genesis 41:55

  When all the land of Egypt was hungry, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; what he tells you do.”

• Genesis 43:25

  They prepared the gift until Joseph came at noon, for they had heard that they would eat bread there.

• Genesis 43:31

  Then he washed his face and came out, and controlling himself he said, “Serve the food.”

• Genesis 43:32

  They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, for the Egyptians could not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.

• Genesis 45:23

  And to his father he sent as follows: ten donkeys carrying some of the best of Egypt, and ten female donkeys carrying grain, bread, and provisions for his father for the journey.

• Genesis 47:12

  Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with bread, according to the number of their little ones.

• Genesis 47:13

  There was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very severe, and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.

• Genesis 47:15

  When the silver was gone from the land of Egypt and from the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, “Give us bread! Why should we die before you? For our silver is gone.”

• Genesis 47:17

  So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys; and he carried them through with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.

• 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 49:20

  From Asher rich will be his bread, and he will provide delicacies fit for a king.

• Exodus 2:20

  He said to his daughters, “And where is he? Why is it that you left the man? Call him so that he may eat bread.”

• Exodus 16:3

  The sons of Israel said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of YHWH in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full! But you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

• Exodus 16:4

  YHWH said to Moses, “Look, I am going to rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, so that I may test them, whether they will walk in my instruction or not.

• Exodus 16:8

  Moses said, “This will happen when YHWH gives you in the evening meat to eat and bread in the morning to the full, because YHWH has heard your grumblings that you grumble against him. As for us, what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against YHWH.”

• Exodus 16:12

  “I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am YHWH your Elohim.’ ”

• Exodus 16:15

  When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” for they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that YHWH has given you to eat.

• Exodus 16:22

  And on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one; and all the chiefs of the community came and told Moses.

• Exodus 16:29

  See that YHWH has given you the Sabbath; that is why he gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Stay, each one, where he is; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day.”

• Exodus 16:32

  Moses said, “This is the thing that YHWH has commanded: ‘A full omer of it is to be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread that I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’ ”

• Exodus 18:12

  Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices for Elohim; and Aaron came, with all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before Elohim.

• Exodus 23:25

  You shall serve YHWH your Elohim, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will remove sickness from your midst.

• Exodus 25:30

  You shall set on the table the bread of the presence before me continually.

• Exodus 29:2

  and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil; of fine wheat flour you shall make them.

• Exodus 29:23

  and one round loaf of bread, and one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread that is before YHWH.

• Exodus 29:32

  Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

• Exodus 29:34

  If any of the flesh of ordination or of the bread remains until the morning, you shall burn what remains with fire; it shall not be eaten, for it is holy.

• Exodus 34:28

  And he was there with YHWH forty days and forty nights; bread he did not eat, and water he did not drink. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

• Exodus 35:13

  the table and its poles and all its utensils, and the bread of the presence;

And 258 more times.