naara · girl, young woman

What it means

naara (נַעֲרָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “girl, young woman”.

Also maidservant.

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 unmarried female of marrying age.
2. A young woman who helps in a lady's household.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Girl: the unmarried young woman, still in her father's house or in the service of a lady. It is the feminine of נַעַר (boy, young man, H5288).

• The girl of marriageable age Genesis 24:16Genesis 24:141 Kings 1:3
• The young woman in the marriage laws Deuteronomy 22:15Deuteronomy 22:28
• Young women serving in a household Ruth 2:81 Samuel 25:42
• The captive girl in Naaman's house 2 Kings 5:2
• Esther and the king's young women Esther 2:7Esther 2:8

Historical and cultural background

Boaz asked Ruth to stay close to “my young women” who gleaned in his field (Ruth 2:8).

How we translate it

“Young woman” 36 times, “young women” 15, “girl” 8, “girls” 2, also when they are in someone's service (“my young women”, Ruth 2:8); “maidservants” 2. עַלְמָה is also rendered “young woman” in English; pointing at the word shows which one the Hebrew says.

How it is translated

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

• young woman ×36
• young women ×15
• girl ×8
• girls ×2
• maidservants ×2

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×9
• Exodus×1
• Deuteronomy×14
• Judges×7
• Ruth×7
• 1 Samuel×2
• 1 Kings×3
• 2 Kings×2
• Esther×13
• Job×1
• Proverbs×3
• Amos×1

• Genesis 24:14

  Let it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your jar so that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels,’ she is the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown loyal love to my lord.”

• Genesis 24:16

  The girl was very beautiful in appearance, a virgin, and no man had known her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.

• Genesis 24:28

  The girl ran and told her mother’s household about these things.

• Genesis 24:55

  Her brother and her mother said, “Let the girl stay with us some days, or ten; after that she will go.”

• Genesis 24:57

  They said, “Let us call the girl and ask her.”

• Genesis 24:61

  Rebekah and her girls rose and rode on the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and went.

• Genesis 34:3

  But his soul clung to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke to the heart of the young woman.

• Genesis 34:12

  Increase very much the bride-price and the gift you require of me, and I will give just as you say to me; only give me the young woman as a wife.”

• Exodus 2:5

  The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the Nile, while her young women were walking beside the Nile. She saw the ark among the reeds and sent her maid, and she took it.

• Deuteronomy 22:15

  then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of virginity of the young woman to the elders of the city at the gate.

• 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 22:19

  and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought out a bad name against a virgin of Israel, and she shall be his wife; he may not send her away all his days.

• Deuteronomy 22:20

  But if this thing is true, and virginity was not found in the young woman,

• Deuteronomy 22:21

  then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones so that she dies, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by prostituting herself in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

• Deuteronomy 22:23

  If there is a young woman, a virgin, engaged to a man, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her,

• Deuteronomy 22:24

  then you shall bring out both of them to the gate of that city and stone them with stones so that they die: the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humiliated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you.

• Deuteronomy 22:25

  But if in the field the man finds the young woman who is engaged, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.

• Deuteronomy 22:26

  But to the young woman you shall not do anything; the young woman has no sin deserving death, for as when a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case,

• Deuteronomy 22:27

  because he found her in the field; the engaged young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

• Deuteronomy 22:28

  If a man finds a young woman, a virgin who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found,

• Deuteronomy 22:29

  then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he humiliated her; he may not send her away all his days.

• Judges 19:3

  Then her husband arose and went after her to speak to her heart, to bring her back; and his young man was with him, and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him into her father’s house, and when the father of the young woman saw him, he rejoiced to meet him.

• Judges 19:4

  And his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, detained him, and he stayed with him three days; and they ate and drank and spent the night there.

• Judges 19:5

  And it happened on the fourth day that they rose early in the morning, and he arose to go; but the father of the young woman said to his son-in-law, “Sustain your heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward you may go.”

• Judges 19:6

  So they sat down and ate, the two of them together, and drank; and the father of the young woman said to the man, “Please consent to spend the night, and let your heart be merry.”

• Judges 19:8

  On the fifth day he rose early in the morning to go, and the father of the young woman said, “Sustain, please, your heart, and linger until the day declines.” So the two of them ate.

• Judges 19:9

  And the man arose to go, he and his concubine and his young man; but his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, said to him, “Look, please, the day has waned toward evening; spend the night, please. Look, the day is ending; spend the night here, and let your heart be merry; and tomorrow you can rise early for your journey and go to your tent.”

• Judges 21:12

  And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young women, virgins, who had not known a man by lying with a male; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

• Ruth 2:5

  Then Boaz said to his young man who was set over the reapers, “Whose is this young woman?”

• Ruth 2:6

  The young man who was set over the reapers answered and said, “She is a Moabite young woman, the one who returned with Naomi from the field of Moab.

• Ruth 2:8

  Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Have you not heard, my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field, and also do not pass on from here; and so cling to my young women.

• Ruth 2:22

  And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, and that they do not attack you in another field.”

• Ruth 2:23

  So she clung to the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

• Ruth 3:2

  And now, is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you have been? Look, he is winnowing the threshing floor of barley tonight.

• Ruth 4:12

  And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring that YHWH will give you from this young woman.”

• 1 Samuel 9:11

  As they were going up the ascent to the city, they found young women going out to draw water, and they said to them, “Is the seer here?”

• 1 Samuel 25:42

  Abigail hurried and arose and rode on the donkey, with her five young women who went at her feet; she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.

• 1 Kings 1:2

  And his servants said to him, “Let them seek for my lord the king a young woman, a virgin, and let her stand before the king and be his caretaker; and let her lie in your bosom, so that my lord the king may get warm.”

• 1 Kings 1:3

  So they sought a beautiful young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and they found Abishag the Shunammite and brought her to the king.

• 1 Kings 1:4

  The young woman was very beautiful; and she became the king’s caretaker and ministered to him, but the king did not know her.

And 23 more times.