תַּנִּין
tannîyn · H8577 · Hebrew · 14 occurrences
A word for 2 things
- SnakeSnakes and lizards63 verses
- Dragon, sea monsterMythical monsters32 verses
Meanings
-
sea monster
Sea monster, such as behemoth and leviathan
ExamplesGenesis 1:21 And God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.
Job 7:12 “Am I the sea, or the sea monster, That You set a guard over me?
Psalm 74:13 You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
-
snake, serpent
Long legless reptile without eyelids or external ears; it moves by wriggling or gliding; some species have a poisonous bite; symbol of lurking, unexpected danger
ExamplesExodus 7:9 “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Work a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, so that it may turn into a serpent.’”
Exodus 7:10 So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and so they did, just as the LORD had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it turned into a serpent.
Exodus 7:12 For each one threw down his staff, and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs.
How it’s used In 6 roles
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
Words describing itAdjectives, demonstratives, participles
3 occurrences in 4 groups
- גָּדוֹלgreat, large 2
- יָםsea 1
- אָמַרto say 1
- רָבַץto lie down 1
Named alongside itApposition
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- פַּרְעֹהPharaoh 1
What is done to itIt is the object
4 occurrences in 4 groups
- בָּרָאto create 1
- הָרַגto kill 1
- חָלַלto profane, to begin 1
- רָמַסto trample (down) 1
What is said to be itIt is the predicate
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- אַתָּהyou 1
After prepositionsPrepositional phrases
5 occurrences in 2 groups
- לto/for 6
- כlike/as 3
In phrases “… of it”It is the genitive
2 occurrences in 2 groups
- חֵמָהwrath, fury 1
- רֹאשׁhead, top, chief 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 1 word
- לִוְיָתָן livyâthân · H3882 · giant croccodile, giant sea monster
- Both words denote large, often mythological aquatic creatures (leviathan and dragon or sea monster), fearsome water-dwelling beings; they are distinct Hebrew words for similar mythic monsters of the water.
In the other Testament 1 word
- δράκων drákōn · G1404 · dragon
- Greek δράκων specifically denotes the mythological dragon or great serpent, directly rendering Hebrew תַּנִּין in its sea-monster/dragon sense across LXX contexts.
Semantic domains 2 entries
- Aquatic Animals001001002004
- This noun denotes a great sea creature, as in Genesis 1:21's account of God creating the great sea creatures that swarm the waters.
- Small Animals001001002003
- The noun also denotes a serpent, as in Exodus 7:10's account of Aaron's staff turning into a serpent before Pharaoh.
Word family 2 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon H8577. tannin תַּנִּין (erroneous תַּנִּים) noun masculineEze 29:3 serpent, dragon,…
תַּנִּין (erroneous תַּנִּים) noun masculineEze 29:3 serpent, dragon, sea-monster (Late Hebrew id. (rare); Arabic , loan-word from Aramaic תַּנִּינָא, Frä123; Ethiopic ); — absolute ׳ת Exo 7:9 +, יִ֯ם Eze 29:3; Eze 32:2 (by confusion with plural of [תַּן]); plural תַּנִּינַם Gen 1:21, etc.; —
1 serpent, Deu 32:33 (venomous), Psa 91:13 (|| מֶּתֶן), Exo 7:9-10, Exo 7:12 (P).
2 dragon, as devourer (simile) Jer 51:34; הַתּ ׳עֵין Neh 2:13, near Jerusalem
3 sea- (or river-) monster, Gen 1:21 (P); figurative Job 7:12; Psa 74:13 (i.e. Egyptains), Isa 27:1; Isa 51:9 (|| רַהַב, mythological personification of chaos); in summons to praise ׳י Psa 148:7 (|| תְּהֹמוֺת). — See CheEncy. Bib. DRAGON GunkSeh-pfung 69 ff. BartonJAOS xv. 1 (1891). 23 f.; personified of water-spout RSSemitic i. 161; 2nd ed. 176; compare Greek fish-name θύννος LewyFremdw. 15.
II. תנן (√ of following; apparently || נתן; compare also I. תנה).
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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