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Hebrew proper noun (a place) · H5488

סוּף

suphsoof

Red (Sea)

28 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key

Concordance spelling: çûwph

Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H5488is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.

  • 11 of 39
    Old Testament books
  • 12
    spellings

The definition in full

Strong's key (1890) · H5488

a reed, especially the papyrus

The King James renders it: flag, Red (sea), weed. Compare H5489 (סוּף).

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

suph is rendered "Red (Sea)". It stands 28 times in the Hebrew text, across eleven books.

  • Seven of the uses stand in Exodus, more than in any other book.
  • Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Exodus 2:3But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.
  • The Greek text spells it twelve different ways.

The first use

But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

Exodus 2:3בַּסּ֖וּף

The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.

Where the word stands

Seven of the word's twenty-eight uses are in Exodus.

The other 28 Old Testament books never use the word.

What the word means

Each meaning, and the words it is translated by

How the Greek text is glossed, word by word

  • reed24
  • among the rush1
  • and rush1
  • rush1
  • the rush1

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.

סוּףsuphto ceaseUses7
סוּףsuphbe fulfilledUses2

Other numbers on this spelling

Strong gave these words the same spelling and different numbers, so the site counts and defines them apart.

All 28, in canonical order

Every use, in order

Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.

12 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

  • סֽוּף׃7
  • ס֔וּף4
  • ס֑וּף3
  • סוּף֙3
  • ס֖וּף3
  • ס֭וּף2
  • בַּסּ֖וּף1
  • הַסּ֔וּף1
  • וָס֖וּף1
  • ס֛וּף1
  • סּ֑וּף1
  • סֽוּף׃ פ1

The grammar of each form

  • noun · masculine singular24HNtmsa
  • conjunction (“and”) + noun · masculine singular1HC/Ncmsa
  • noun · masculine singular1HNcmsa
  • preposition with the article + noun · masculine singular1HRd/Ncmsa
  • the definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singular1HTd/Ncmsa

Exodus

seven uses
  • But when she could no longer hide him, she got him a papyrus basket and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in the basket and set it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

    Exodus 2:3

    • בַּסּ֖וּףbasufpreposition with the article + noun · masculine singulartagged: among the rush
  • Soon the daughter of Pharaoh went down to bathe in the Nile, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. And when she saw the basket among the reeds, she sent her maidservant to retrieve it.

    Exodus 2:5

    • הַסּ֔וּףhasufthe definite article (“the”) + noun · masculine singulartagged: the rush
  • And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust remained anywhere in Egypt.

    Exodus 10:19

    • סּ֑וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the Israelites left the land of Egypt arrayed for battle.

    Exodus 13:18

    • ס֑וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • Pharaoh’s chariots and army He has cast into the sea; the finest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea.

    Exodus 15:4

    • סֽוּף׃sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water.

    Exodus 15:22

    • ס֔וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.

    Exodus 23:31

    • סוּף֙sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed

Numbers

four uses
  • Now since the Amalekites and Canaanites are living in the valleys, turn back tomorrow and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”

    Numbers 14:25

    • סֽוּף׃ פsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • Then they set out from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, in order to bypass the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient on the journey

    Numbers 21:4

    • ס֔וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • They set out from Elim and camped by the Red Sea.

    Numbers 33:10

    • סֽוּף׃sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • They set out from the Red Sea and camped in the Desert of Sin.

    Numbers 33:11

    • ס֑וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed

Deuteronomy

three uses
  • But you are to turn back and head for the wilderness along the route to the Red Sea.”

    Deuteronomy 1:40

    • סֽוּף׃sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • Then we turned back and headed for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea, as the LORD had instructed me, and for many days we wandered around Mount Seir.

    Deuteronomy 2:1

    • ס֔וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day;

    Deuteronomy 11:4

    • סוּף֙sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed

Joshua

three uses
  • For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.

    Joshua 2:10

    • סוּף֙sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, just as He did to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed over.

    Joshua 4:23

    • ס֛וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • When I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you reached the Red Sea, the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea.

    Joshua 24:6

    • סֽוּף׃sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed

Judges

one use
  • But when Israel came up out of Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

    Judges 11:16

    • ס֔וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed

1 Kings

one use
  • King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

    1 Kings 9:26

    • ס֖וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed

Nehemiah

one use
  • You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt; You heard their cry at the Red Sea.

    Nehemiah 9:9

    • סֽוּף׃sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed

Psalms

five uses
  • Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.

    Psalms 106:7

    • סֽוּף׃sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

    Psalms 106:9

    • ס֭וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

    Psalms 106:22

    • סֽוּף׃sufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever.

    Psalms 136:13

    • ס֭וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed
  • but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea. His loving devotion endures forever.

    Psalms 136:15

    • ס֑וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed

Isaiah

one use
  • The canals will stink; the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up; the reeds and rushes will wither.

    Isaiah 19:6

    • וָס֖וּףvasufconjunction (“and”) + noun · masculine singulartagged: and rush

Jeremiah

one use
  • At the sound of their fall the earth will quake; their cry will resound to the Red Sea.

    Jeremiah 49:21

    • ס֖וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: reed

Jonah

one use
  • The waters engulfed me to take my life; the watery depths closed around me; the seaweed wrapped around my head.

    Jonah 2:5

    • ס֖וּףsufnoun · masculine singulartagged: rush

The letters

Gematria 146· 866 mispar gadol

Where it leads

Studies that open this word1

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.

Hebrew and Greek text, word tagging and grammar: STEP Bible (www.STEPBible.org), Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0. Their grammar codes are written out in English here and shown as tagged beside each one.

Meaning and senses: STEP Bible TBESH gloss (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary key: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890, public domain). English verse text: Berean Standard Bible (public domain, 2023).

Revised 2026-09-05. Every cited work, the sources registry →