אָמַר
a.mar (H0559)
to say
AI Word Study
# The Hebrew Verb אָמַר (amar): "To Say" The Hebrew verb אָמַר appears 5,309 times throughout the biblical text, making it one of the most frequently used words in the Hebrew Bible. Its core meaning is simply "to say," encompassing the basic human act of speech or utterance. This extraordinary frequency reflects the central role of spoken language in biblical narrative and discourse—whether in dialogue between characters, divine pronouncements, or reported speech. The sheer number of occurrences suggests that this verb served as the primary mechanism through which the biblical authors conveyed communication of all kinds. Rather than employing specialized vocabulary for different types of speech, the biblical writers appear to have relied heavily on this single, versatile verb to introduce dialogue, commands, blessings, curses, prophecies, and everyday conversation. This linguistic pattern reveals how fundamental the act of saying—of giving voice to thought and intention—was understood to be in the worldview represented by these texts. The dominance of אָמַר in biblical literature underscores that much of the biblical narrative unfolds through direct speech. Rather than describing events primarily through external narration, the texts repeatedly present characters and God communicating their will, thoughts, and responses through utterance. This structural reliance on the simple verb "to say" reflects a literary strategy centered on voice and dialogue as the primary means of advancing narrative and
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so.
God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth;” and it was so.
God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years;
God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.”
God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”
God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;” and it was so.
God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.
Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.”
Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden,
but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’ ”
Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You will bear children in pain. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.
Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—”
The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help.”
Yahweh said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why has the expression of your face fallen?
Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.
Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.
Cain said to Yahweh, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Yahweh said to him, “Therefore whoever slays Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” Yahweh appointed a sign for Cain, so that anyone finding him would not strike him.
Lamech said to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to my speech, for I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for bruising me.
He named him Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, caused by the ground which Yahweh has cursed.”
Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.”
Yahweh said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.”
God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.
Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.
God spoke to Noah, saying,
Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.
God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth.
God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,
God said, “This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
God said to Noah, “This is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.”
He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.
He was a mighty hunter before Yahweh. Therefore it is said, “like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before Yahweh”.
They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar.
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