ov · medium, ghost

What it means

ov (אוֹב) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “medium, ghost”.

The spirit of a dead person, and the one who claims to call it up to consult it (1 Samuel 28:7).

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 departed soul some tried to consult.
2. A leather bag for wine, which bursts if the wine ferments inside.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• those who call up the dead ×10
• calling up the dead ×2
• spirit of the dead ×2
• who calls up the dead ×2
• like new wineskins ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Leviticus×3
• Deuteronomy×1
• 1 Samuel×5
• 2 Kings×2
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Job×1
• Isaiah×3

• Leviticus 19:31

  Do not turn to those who call up the dead or to spiritists; do not seek them out to become unclean by them. I am YHWH your Elohim.

• Leviticus 20:6

  And the person who turns to those who call up the dead and to spiritists, prostituting themselves after them, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from among his people.

• Leviticus 20:27

  And a man or a woman in whom there is a spirit of the dead or a spirit of divination shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones; their blood is on them.”

• Deuteronomy 18:11

  or a charmer casting spells, or one who consults those who call up the dead, or a spiritist, or one who seeks the dead.

• 1 Samuel 28:3

  Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah, in his own city. And Saul had removed those who call up the dead and the spiritists from the land.

• 1 Samuel 28:7

  Saul said to his servants, “Seek for me a woman who calls up the dead, that I may go to her and consult through her.” His servants said to him, “Look, there is a woman who calls up the dead at Endor.”

• 1 Samuel 28:8

  Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him; they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Please divine for me by calling up the dead, and bring up for me the one I name to you.”

• 1 Samuel 28:9

  The woman said to him, “Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who call up the dead and the spiritists from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to put me to death?”

• 2 Kings 21:6

  He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and read omens, and appointed those who call up the dead and spiritists; he did much evil in the eyes of YHWH, to provoke him to anger.

• 2 Kings 23:24

  Moreover, those who call up the dead and the spiritists, the teraphim, the idols, and all the detestable things that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah purged, in order to confirm the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of YHWH.

• 1 Chronicles 10:13

  So Saul died for his unfaithfulness that he committed against YHWH, because of the word of YHWH that he did not keep, and also for asking by calling up the dead, to consult,

• 2 Chronicles 33:6

  He made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, read omens, practiced sorcery, and appointed those who call up the dead and spiritists; he multiplied doing evil in the eyes of YHWH, provoking him to anger.

• Job 32:19

  Look, my belly is like wine that is not opened; like new wineskins it is bursting.

• Isaiah 8:19

  And when they say to you, “Consult those who call up the dead and the spiritists, who chirp and mutter,” should not a people consult its Elohim? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living?

• Isaiah 19:3

  And the spirit of Egypt will be emptied out within it, and its counsel I will swallow up; and they will consult the idols and the charmers and those who call up the dead and the spiritists.

• Isaiah 29:4

  And you will be brought low; from the earth you will speak, and from the dust your saying will come low; and your voice will be like a spirit of the dead from the earth, and from the dust your saying will whisper.

And 1 more times.