דָּג
dag (H1709H)
fish
AI Word Study
# דָּג (dag): Fish in Biblical Hebrew The Hebrew word *dag* is a straightforward term denoting fish, appearing fifteen times throughout the biblical text. Its basic referent is clear: the aquatic creatures that inhabit water bodies. The consistency of this definition across occurrences suggests the word functioned as the standard Hebrew designation for fish without specialized subcategories or metaphorical extensions in most biblical contexts. The modest frequency of *dag* in the biblical corpus—only fifteen occurrences across the entire Hebrew scriptures—indicates that fish, while present in the ancient Israelite world, were not a central focus of biblical narrative or theological discourse. This contrasts with the prominence given to land animals, livestock, and birds in biblical law and narrative. The word's presence in the text reflects the practical reality of fish in ancient Near Eastern life, particularly in contexts involving bodies of water like the Sea of Galilee or the Mediterranean, yet fish do not occupy major symbolic or legislative roles comparable to clean and unclean land animals. Without access to specific textual contexts from the provided data, the full range of *dag*'s usage—whether it appears primarily in legal, narrative, poetic, or other genres—cannot be determined. What is clear is that biblical Hebrew possessed this simple, concrete term for fish as a category of living creature, representing an acknowledged element of the natural world within the biblical writers' awareness and experience
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand.
Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, to be sufficient for them? Shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be sufficient for them?”
He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows out of the wall; he also spoke of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish.
Some men of Tyre also lived there, who brought in fish and all kinds of wares, and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.
Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you.
Can you fill his skin with barbed irons, or his head with fish spears?
the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
For man also doesn’t know his time. As the fish that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly on them.
so that the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth will shake at my presence. Then the mountains will be thrown down, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground.
Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells in it will waste away, with all living things in her, even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky, yes, the fish of the sea also die.
Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
I will sweep away man and animal. I will sweep away the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and the heaps of rubble with the wicked. I will cut off man from the surface of the earth, says Yahweh.