עֶ֫לֶם
e.lem
youth
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Elem (עֶ֫לֶם): Hebrew Word for Youth The Hebrew word *elem* carries the basic meaning of "youth," referring to a stage of life characterized by relative inexperience and development. With only two occurrences in the biblical text, this term represents a limited but distinct vocabulary choice for describing young age or the youthful period of human development. The rarity of this particular word in biblical literature—appearing just twice—suggests it may have been a specialized or poetic term rather than the everyday vocabulary for describing young people. While the lexicon provided does not detail the specific contexts of its two occurrences, the minimal frequency of usage indicates that biblical writers had other more common words at their disposal for discussing youth, making *elem* a notable but peripheral term in the Hebrew vocabulary of age and life stages. Without additional context data, the full range of usage and any nuanced distinctions this word might carry compared to other youth-related terms cannot be determined from the provided information alone.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
2 total occurrences across the text