tehom · the deep

What it means

tehom (תְּהוֹם) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “the deep”.

Waters: the deep sea, the ocean, and the waters under the earth. In the Hebrew Bible it is not a place of punishment or the place of the dead.

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. The bottomless waters, the vast sea.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• deep ×22
• deeps ×11
• depths ×3

Where it appears

• Genesis×4
• Exodus×2
• Deuteronomy×2
• Job×4
• Psalms×12
• Proverbs×4
• Isaiah×2
• Ezekiel×3
• Amos×1
• Jonah×1
• Habakkuk×1

• Genesis 1:2

  Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of Elohim was hovering over the surface of the waters.

• Genesis 7:11

  In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the springs of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

• Genesis 8:2

  And the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the heavens was held back.

• Genesis 49:25

  by the El of your father, who will help you, and by Shaddai, who will bless you with blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

• Exodus 15:5

  The deeps covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.

• Exodus 15:8

  By the breath of your nostrils the waters piled up; the streams stood up like a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

• Deuteronomy 8:7

  For YHWH your Elohim is bringing you into a good land, a land of streams of water, of springs and deeps flowing out in the plain and on the mountain;

• Deuteronomy 33:13

  And of Joseph he said, “Blessed by YHWH be his land, with the choicest gifts of the heavens, with the dew, and with the deep that lies beneath,

• Job 28:14

  The deep says, ‘It is not in me’; and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

• Job 38:16

  Have you entered as far as the springs of the sea, and in the recesses of the deep walked about?

• Job 38:30

  Like stone the waters hide themselves, and the face of the deep congeals.

• Job 41:32

  Behind it it makes shine a path; one would take the deep for gray hair.

• Psalms 33:7

  He gathers like a heap the waters of the sea; he puts in storehouses the deeps.

• Psalms 36:6

  Your righteousness is like the mountains of El; your judgments are a great deep; human beings and livestock you save, YHWH.

• Psalms 42:7

  Deep calls to deep at the voice of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves over me have passed.

• Psalms 71:20

  You who have made me see many distresses and evils, will again give me life, and from the deeps of the earth will again bring me up.

• Psalms 77:16

  The waters saw you, Elohim; the waters saw you and writhed; the deeps also shuddered.

• Psalms 78:15

  He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as from the deeps, abundantly.

• Psalms 104:6

  With the deep as with a garment you covered it; above the mountains the waters stood.

• Psalms 106:9

  And he rebuked the Sea of Reeds, and it dried up; and he led them through the depths as through the wilderness.

• Psalms 107:26

  They went up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; their soul in trouble melted away.

• Psalms 135:6

  All that YHWH desired he has done, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and in all the deeps.

• Psalms 148:7

  Praise YHWH from the earth, sea monsters and all deeps,

• Proverbs 3:20

  By his knowledge the deeps were split open, and the clouds drip dew.

• Proverbs 8:24

  When there were no deeps, I was brought forth, when there were no springs laden with water.

• Proverbs 8:27

  When he established the heavens, there was I; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,

• Proverbs 8:28

  when he made firm the clouds above, when the fountains of the deep grew strong,

• Isaiah 51:10

  Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over?

• Isaiah 63:13

  who made them go through the depths, like a horse in the wilderness, and they did not stumble?”

• Ezekiel 26:19

  For thus says Adonai YHWH: When I make you a ruined city, like the cities that are not inhabited, when I bring up over you the deep and the many waters cover you,

• Ezekiel 31:4

  The waters made it grow, the deep made it high; her streams went around her planting, and her conduits she sent out to all the trees of the field.

• Ezekiel 31:15

  Thus says Adonai YHWH: ‘On the day it went down to Sheol I caused mourning; I covered the deep over it, and I held back its streams, and the many waters were restrained; and I put Lebanon in mourning for it, and all the trees of the field fainted for it.

• Amos 7:4

  Thus Adonai YHWH showed me: and look, Adonai YHWH was calling to contend by fire; and it devoured the great deep and was devouring the portion.

• Jonah 2:5

  The waters encompassed me up to the soul; the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head.

• Habakkuk 3:10

  The mountains saw you and writhed; the downpour of waters passed by; the deep gave its voice; on high its hands it lifted up.

And 1 more times.