אֵיךְ
ʼêyk · H349 · Hebrew · 82 occurrences
Meanings
-
how?
Referent to the way in which an event is performed; normally with the intention of finding out how, but often used in rhetorical questions in order to express one's conviction that that event in question cannot be performed at all (under the given circumstances)
ExamplesGenesis 26:9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she certainly is your wife! So how is it that you said, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘otherwise I might be killed on account of her.’”
Genesis 39:9 “There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil, and sin against God?”
Genesis 44:8 “Behold, the money which we found in the opening of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?
How it’s used
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
In the other Testament 1 word
- πῶς pōs · G4459 · how? by what means?
- Greek πῶς serves as the direct interrogative equivalent for Hebrew אֵיךְ across manner questions ("how?"), exclamatory uses ("how [much]!"), and indirect question constructions, maintaining functional and semantic alignment in both direct and embedded interrogative contexts.
Semantic domains 2 entries
- Descriptive Referents003002003
- אֵיךְ introduces a question about manner, "how," as Isaac asking how he could have said Rebekah was his sister.
- Spatial Referents003002005
- In some uses the word can carry a spatial or situational sense alongside its more common manner-question use.
Word family 5 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H349. ek אֵיךְ59 (Aramaic אֵיךְ, [pronounced âch]) adverb 1. interrogative How? Gen 26:9;…
אֵיךְ59 (Aramaic אֵיךְ, [pronounced âch])
adverb 1. interrogative How? Gen 26:9; 2Sa 1:5, 2Sa 1:14; 1Ki 12:6; Isa 20:6 and elsewhere; often with imperfect (especially in 1 person) in an expostulation Gen 39:9; Gen 44:8, Gen 44:34; Jos 9:7; 2Sa 2:22; 2Sa 12:18; Psa 137:4; Isa 48:11 for howshould it be profaned ? תאמר(וׅ איך how canst or dost thou (do you) say . . . ? Jdg 16:15; Isa 19:11; Jer 2:23 (compare Jer 8:8 אֵיכָה) Jer 48:14; Psa 11:1; in an indirect sentence 2Ki 17:28; Jer 36:17; Rth 3:18.
2. as an exclamation How! whether of lamentation 2Sa 1:19; Jer 2:21; Jer 9:18; Mic 2:4; or of satisfaction Isa 14:4, Isa 14:12; Jer 48:39; Jer 51:41; Obadiah 5 and elsewhere; with intensive force = how gladly! Jer 3:19, how terribly! Jer 9:6 (but others render here 'for how [else] should I do'? etc.) **Hos 11:8 according to Hi Ke We Marti and others.
אֵיכָה (from אַי and כָּה = כֹּה; compare Assyrian ekiam)
adverb 1. interrogative In what manner? τίνι τρόπῳ; (rather more definite than אֵיח = πῶς); Deu 1:12; Deu 7:17; Deu 12:30; Deu 18:21; Deu 32:30; Jdg 20:3 (indirect sentence) 2Ki 6:15; Jer 8:8; Psa 73:11.
2 exclamation How! (slightly more emphatic than אֵיח) Isa 1:21; Jer 48:17; Lam 1:1; Lam 2:1; Lam 4:1-2,.
3 Where? (properly north-Israel; compare Aramaic אֵיכָא, where ? compare DrIntr. 178, 421) only 2Ki 6:13 Kt Son 1:7 (twice in verse), — each time in an indirect sentence.
אֵיכָ֫כָה (Canticles) ֵאיכָכָ֫ה (Esther) (from אַי & כָּ֫כָה thus)
How? only Son 5:3 (twice in verse); Est 8:6 (twice in verse).
Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain
Topical studies with this word 2 entries
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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