ot · sign

What it means

ot (אוֹת) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “sign”.

Something visible that serves to show or recall something else (a mark, a warning, a proof). The heavenly bodies are signs that mark days, seasons and years; in other passages it is an extraordinary deed by which God shows something.

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 mark or signal that points to something.
2. A miracle that shows God's power.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Sign: something visible that points to, recalls or proves something else; also an extraordinary deed by which God shows something. BDB: a signal, literally or figuratively: a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence.

• The lights in the heavens, to serve as signs Genesis 1:14
• The sign of the covenant: the bow, circumcision Genesis 9:13Genesis 17:11
• Signs that prove a mission Exodus 3:12Exodus 4:8Isaiah 7:14
• The blood, “a sign” on the houses Exodus 12:13
• “As a sign on your hand”; the signs of the tribes Deuteronomy 6:8Numbers 2:2

How we translate it

“Sign” 44 times and “signs” 35. In Numbers 2:2 אֹתֹת are “the signs of their fathers’ houses”, next to דֶּגֶל, “banner”.

How it is translated

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

• sign ×44
• signs ×35

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×6
• Exodus×16
• Numbers×5
• Deuteronomy×12
• Joshua×3
• Judges×1
• 1 Samuel×4
• 2 Kings×3
• Nehemiah×1
• Job×1
• Psalms×8
• Isaiah×11
• Jeremiah×4
• Ezekiel×4

• Genesis 1:14

  And Elohim said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for appointed times and for days and years;

• Genesis 4:15

  And YHWH said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And YHWH put a sign on Cain, so that no one who found him would strike him.

• Genesis 9:12

  And Elohim said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am giving between me and you and every living being that is with you, for generations forever:

• Genesis 9:13

  my bow I have put in the cloud, and it will be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

• Genesis 9:17

  And Elohim said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

• Genesis 17:11

  You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

• Exodus 3:12

  He said, “But I will be with you, and this will be the sign for you that I have sent you: when you have brought out the people from Egypt, you will serve Elohim on this mountain.”

• Exodus 4:8

  “And it will be that if they do not believe you or listen to the voice of the first sign, they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

• Exodus 4:9

  And it will be that if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some of the water of the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

• Exodus 4:17

  And this staff you shall take in your hand, with which you shall do the signs.”

• Exodus 4:28

  Moses told Aaron all the words of YHWH with which he had sent him and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.

• Exodus 4:30

  Aaron spoke all the words that YHWH had spoken to Moses, and he did the signs in the sight of the people.

• Exodus 7:3

  But I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, and I will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

• Exodus 8:23

  I will put a ransom between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign will take place.”’”

• Exodus 10:1

  YHWH said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have made his heart and the heart of his servants insensitive, in order to put these signs of mine in their midst,

• Exodus 10:2

  and so that you may tell in the ears of your son and of the son of your son how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians, and my signs that I did among them, and you will know that I am YHWH.”

• Exodus 12:13

  The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are; when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no destroying plague will be among you when I strike the land of Egypt.

• Exodus 13:9

  It shall be for you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, so that the instruction of YHWH may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand YHWH brought you out of Egypt.

• Exodus 13:16

  It shall be as a sign on your hand and as frontlets between your eyes, for with a strong hand YHWH brought us out of Egypt.”

• Exodus 31:13

  “And you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘Surely you shall keep my Sabbaths, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, so that you know that I am YHWH who sanctifies you.

• Exodus 31:17

  Between me and the sons of Israel it is a sign forever; for in six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he ceased and caught his breath.’”

• Numbers 2:2

  “The sons of Israel shall camp, each man by his banner, with the signs of their fathers’ houses; they shall camp around the tent of meeting, facing it.

• Numbers 14:11

  And YHWH said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?

• Numbers 14:22

  that all the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not listened to my voice,

• Numbers 16:38

  the censers of these sinners at the cost of their lives. And let them make them into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they presented them before YHWH, and they became holy; and they shall be a sign to the sons of Israel.”

• Numbers 17:10

  And YHWH said to Moses, “Put back the staff of Aaron before the testimony, to be kept as a sign for the rebels, so that you put an end to their grumblings against me, and they will not die.”

• Deuteronomy 4:34

  Or has a god tried to come and take for himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a strong hand and by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that YHWH your Elohim did for you in Egypt before your eyes?

• Deuteronomy 6:8

  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

• Deuteronomy 6:22

  YHWH worked signs and wonders, great and harmful, against Egypt, against Pharaoh, and against all his house, before our eyes.

• Deuteronomy 7:19

  the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the strong hand and the outstretched arm by which YHWH your Elohim brought you out. So YHWH your Elohim will do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

• Deuteronomy 11:3

  his signs and his works that he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his land;

• Deuteronomy 11:18

  So you shall put these words of mine on your heart and on your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

• Deuteronomy 13:1

  If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder,

• Deuteronomy 13:2

  and the sign or the wonder comes about, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods, whom you have not known, and let us serve them,”

• Deuteronomy 26:8

  And YHWH brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and with wonders.

• Deuteronomy 28:46

  And they will be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your offspring, forever.

• Deuteronomy 29:3

  the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders.

• Deuteronomy 34:11

  for all the signs and the wonders that YHWH sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land,

• Joshua 2:12

  Now please swear to me by YHWH, since I have shown loyal love to you, that you also will show loyal love to the house of my father, and give me a sign of truth,

• Joshua 4:6

  so that this may be a sign among you. When your sons ask in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones to you?’

And 39 more times.