צֹאן
tson (H6629G)
flock
AI Word Study
# צֹאן (tson): The Hebrew Word for Flock The Hebrew word צֹאן (tson) appears 271 times throughout the biblical text and carries the primary meaning of "flock"—a collective term for a group of animals kept together, typically sheep and goats. The word functions as a basic agricultural and pastoral vocabulary item, reflecting the central role of herding in ancient Israelite society. Its frequency in the biblical corpus underscores how integral livestock management was to daily life and economic survival in the ancient Near East. The consistent usage across 271 occurrences suggests that צֹאן served as a stable, fundamental term in Hebrew vocabulary without significant semantic variation. This stability indicates the word was well-established and commonly understood, referring to a standard cultural reality rather than something requiring explanation or reinterpretation. The high frequency also demonstrates that flocks were not peripheral to biblical narratives but rather a regular subject of discussion, appearing in contexts ranging from economic transactions to religious practice. The prominence of this agricultural term in the biblical text reflects the importance of pastoral wealth and herding practices in the world the texts describe. Flocks represented tangible assets, food sources, and material for religious sacrifice, making צֹאן one of the essential vocabulary items for understanding the economic and social landscape of biblical society.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
Again she gave birth, to Cain’s brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
Abel also brought some of the firstborn of his flock and of its fat. Yahweh respected Abel and his offering,
He dealt well with Abram for her sake. He had sheep, cattle, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him.
Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.
Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
Yahweh has blessed my master greatly. He has become great. Yahweh has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male servants and female servants, and camels and donkeys.
He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.
Go now to the flock and get me two good young goats from there. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves.
He looked, and behold, a well in the field, and saw three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well’s mouth was large.
There all the flocks were gathered. They rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again on the well’s mouth in its place.
He said to them, “Is it well with him?” They said, “It is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep.”
He said, “Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the livestock together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.”
They said, “We can’t, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well’s mouth. Then we water the sheep.”
While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she kept them.
When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.
Laban said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.
I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.
He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.
The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted.
Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in Laban’s flock. He put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban’s flock.
Whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, Jacob laid the rods in front of the eyes of the flock in the watering troughs, that they might conceive among the rods;
but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,
If he said, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore streaked.
During mating season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled.
He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.
Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep; and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.
“These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your flocks.
These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine! What can I do today to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne?
I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’ ”
Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;
Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.
They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field,
This is the history of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought an evil report of them to their father.
His brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem.
He said to him, “Go now, see whether it is well with your brothers, and well with the flock; and bring me word again.” So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
After many days, Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died. Judah was comforted, and went up to his sheep shearers to Timnah, he and his friend Hirah, the Adullamite.
Tamar was told, “Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
He said, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” She said, “Will you give me a pledge, until you send it?”
You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you will be near to me, you, your children, your children’s children, your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.
These men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.’
that you shall say, ‘Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers:’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”
Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.”
Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” They said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, both we, and our fathers.”
They also said to Pharaoh, “We have come to live as foreigners in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants’ flocks. For the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”
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