נַחַשׁ
nachash · H5173 · Hebrew · 2 occurrences
Meanings
-
an omen or enchantment
Any action which attempts to interpret an event, a natural occurrence or a sign in order to predict an outcome or the will of a deity
ExamplesNumbers 23:23 “For there is no magic curse against Jacob, Nor is there any divination against Israel; At the proper time it shall be said to Jacob And to Israel, what God has done!
Numbers 24:1 When Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to seek omens, rather he turned his attention toward the wilderness.
How it’s used In 2 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
What is done to itIt is the object
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- קָרָאto meet, to happen 1
What it is said to bePredicate
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- יַעֲקֹבJacob 1
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.
Near synonyms 4 words
- מִקְסָם miqçâm · H4738 · divination
- Both words refer to divination and enchantment, practices of supernatural or magical consultation.
- קֶסֶם qeçem · H7081 · divination, lot
- Both lexemes denote prohibited divination practices in ancient Israel; "enchantment" and "divination/witchcraft" are genuinely overlapping/interchangeable senses referring to occult methods of gaining knowledge.
- חֶבֶר cheber · H2267 · community, company, group
- Both terms suggest real semantic overlap in the realm of magic or enchantment, though one has a much broader semantic range (also appearing with senses of "company" and "wide," and in contexts of associates or peoples), meaning it is not primarily a divination term — the other is more narrowly focused on enchantment, so they share only one facet of meaning.
- כֶּשֶׁף kesheph · H3785 · sorcery
- "Sorcery/witchcraft" and "enchantment" denote genuinely near-synonymous magical practices in ancient Hebrew — related supernatural or divinatory activities that could overlap or substitute in sense.
Semantic domains 1 entry
- Divination002003003009
- נַחַשׁ denotes enchantment or omen-divination, used in Numbers 23:23 and 24:1 of the divination Balaam is famously said NOT to use against Israel, tying the word to this practice of seeking supernatural signs.
Word family 3 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H5173. nachash נַ֫חַשׁ noun [masculine] divination, enchantment, only absolute ׳נ Num…
נַ֫חַשׁ noun [masculine] divination, enchantment, only absolute ׳נ Num 23:23 (J E; || קֶסֶם), and plural absolute נְחָשִׁים Num 24:1 (JE), both in story of Balsam.
III. נחשׁ (√ of following, meaning unknown).
Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain
Topical studies with this word 1 entry
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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