Hebrew verb · H2992
יָבַם
yabamyaw-bam'
be brother-in-law
3 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key
Concordance spelling: yâbam
Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H2992is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.
- 2 of 39Old Testament books
- 3spellings
The definition in full
Strong's key (1890) · H2992
to marry a (deceased) brother's widow
The King James renders it: perform the duty of a husband's brother, marry.
James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.
Summary
yabam is rendered "be brother-in-law". It stands 3 times in the Hebrew text, across two books.
- Two of the uses stand in Deuteronomy, more than in any other book.
- Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Genesis 38:8Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”
- The Greek text spells it three different ways.
The first use
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”
Genesis 38:8וְיַבֵּ֣ם
The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.
Where the word stands
Two of the word's three uses are in Deuteronomy.
What the word means
Each meaning, and the words it is translated by
How the Greek text is glossed, word by word
- and act as a husband's brother for1
- and he will act as a husband's brother for her1
- to act as a husband's brother for me1
The words built on the same word-part
Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.
All 3, in canonical order
Every use, in order
Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.
3 spellings and their grammar
STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.
How it is spelled
- וְיַבֵּ֣ם1
- וְיִבְּמָֽהּ׃1
- יַבְּמִֽי׃1
The grammar of each form
- Hc/Vpq3ms/Sp3fs1Hc/Vpq3ms/Sp3fs
- conjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive (piel), command · 2nd person masculine singular1HC/Vpv2ms
- verb · intensive (piel), infinitive (“to…”) + pronoun suffix · 1st person masculine or feminine singular1HVpcc/Sp1bs
Genesis
one use
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”
- וְיַבֵּ֣םveyabemconjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive (piel), command · 2nd person masculine singulartagged: and act as a husband's brother for
Deuteronomy
two uses
When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.
- וְיִבְּמָֽהּ׃veyibemahHc/Vpq3ms/Sp3fstagged: and he will act as a husband's brother for her
But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”
- יַבְּמִֽי׃yabemiverb · intensive (piel), infinitive (“to…”) + pronoun suffix · 1st person masculine or feminine singulartagged: to act as a husband's brother for me
The letters
Gematria 52· 612 mispar gadol
Where it leads
How the numbers are counted
Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.
Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.
The family is read from the lexicon by the stem the two words share, with the accents off, and a person or a place named on the stem is left out.