עַם
am
people
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word עַם (am): "People" The Hebrew word *am* appears 1,762 times throughout the Bible, making it one of the most frequently used terms in biblical Hebrew. Its primary meaning is "people," though this simple translation encompasses a range of social and collective groupings. The sheer frequency of occurrence indicates that discussing human communities—whether defined by kinship, geography, ethnicity, or shared allegiance—was fundamental to biblical discourse. Given its prevalence across the entire biblical corpus, *am* functions as a foundational concept for understanding how ancient Hebrew texts conceptualized human organization and identity. The word applies flexibly to various collective groups, from a single tribe or nation to an entire ethnic population. This linguistic flexibility reflects the biblical worldview's preoccupation with questions of community, belonging, and collective identity. The term serves as a bridge between individual and group identity, appearing in contexts ranging from genealogical narratives to legal codes to prophetic discourse, suggesting that the concept of "people" was essential to how biblical authors understood history, law, and divine purpose.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
1,762 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
Didn’t you, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it to the offspring of Abraham your friend forever?
2 Chronicles 20:21When he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to Yahweh, and give praise in holy array, as they go out before the army, and say, “Give thanks to Yahweh; for his loving kindness endures forever.”
2 Chronicles 20:25When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their plunder, they found among them in abundance both riches and dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away. They took plunder for three days, it was so much.
2 Chronicles 20:33However the high places were not taken away, and the people had still not set their hearts on the God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 21:14behold, Yahweh will strike your people with a great plague, including your children, your wives, and all your possessions;
2 Chronicles 21:19In process of time, at the end of two years, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness, and he died of severe diseases. His people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers.
2 Chronicles 23:5A third part shall be at the king’s house; and a third part at the gate of the foundation. All the people will be in the courts of Yahweh’s house.
2 Chronicles 23:6But let no one come into Yahweh’s house, except the priests and those who minister of the Levites. They shall come in, for they are holy, but all the people shall follow Yahweh’s instructions.
2 Chronicles 23:10He set all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, near the altar and the house, around the king.
2 Chronicles 23:12When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into Yahweh’s house.
2 Chronicles 23:12When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people into Yahweh’s house.
2 Chronicles 23:13Then she looked, and, behold, the king stood by his pillar at the entrance, and the captains and the trumpets by the king. All the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. The singers also played musical instruments, and led the singing of praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and said, “Treason! treason!”
2 Chronicles 23:16Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, all the people, and the king, that they should be Yahweh’s people.
2 Chronicles 23:16Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, all the people, and the king, that they should be Yahweh’s people.
2 Chronicles 23:17All the people went to the house of Baal, broke it down, broke his altars and his images in pieces, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars.
2 Chronicles 23:20He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from Yahweh’s house. They came through the upper gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom.
2 Chronicles 23:20He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land, and brought the king down from Yahweh’s house. They came through the upper gate to the king’s house, and set the king on the throne of the kingdom.
2 Chronicles 23:21So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. They had slain Athaliah with the sword.
2 Chronicles 24:10All the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in, and cast into the chest, until they had filled it.
2 Chronicles 24:20The Spirit of God came on Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood above the people, and said to them, “God says, ‘Why do you disobey Yahweh’s commandments, so that you can’t prosper? Because you have forsaken Yahweh, he has also forsaken you.’ ”
2 Chronicles 24:23At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus.
2 Chronicles 24:23At the end of the year, the army of the Syrians came up against him: and they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all their plunder to the king of Damascus.
2 Chronicles 25:11Amaziah took courage, and led his people out, and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck ten thousand of the children of Seir.
2 Chronicles 25:15Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of your hand?”
2 Chronicles 25:15Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of your hand?”
2 Chronicles 26:1All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the place of his father Amaziah.
2 Chronicles 26:21Uzziah the king was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from Yahweh’s house. Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.
2 Chronicles 27:2He did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, according to all that his father Uzziah had done. However he didn’t enter into Yahweh’s temple. The people still acted corruptly.
2 Chronicles 29:36Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced, because of that which God had prepared for the people; for the thing was done suddenly.
2 Chronicles 29:36Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced, because of that which God had prepared for the people; for the thing was done suddenly.
2 Chronicles 30:3For they could not keep it at that time, because the priests had not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, and the people had not gathered themselves together to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 30:13Many people assembled at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.
2 Chronicles 30:18For a multitude of the people, even many of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover other than the way it is written. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Yahweh pardon everyone
2 Chronicles 30:20Yahweh listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.
2 Chronicles 30:27Then the Levitical priests arose and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy habitation, even to heaven.
2 Chronicles 31:4Moreover he commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, that they might give themselves to Yahweh’s law.
2 Chronicles 31:8When Hezekiah and the princes came and saw the heaps, they blessed Yahweh and his people Israel.
2 Chronicles 31:10Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since people began to bring the offerings into Yahweh’s house, we have eaten and had enough, and have plenty left over, for Yahweh has blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.”
2 Chronicles 32:4So, many people gathered together and they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the middle of the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find abundant water?”
2 Chronicles 32:6He set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the wide place at the gate of the city, and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,
2 Chronicles 32:8An arm of flesh is with him, but Yahweh our God is with us to help us and to fight our battles.” The people rested themselves on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
2 Chronicles 32:13Don’t you know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands in any way able to deliver their land out of my hand?
2 Chronicles 32:14Who was there among all the gods of those nations which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you out of my hand?
2 Chronicles 32:15Now therefore don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you in this way. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you out of my hand?”
2 Chronicles 32:17He also wrote letters insulting Yahweh, the God of Israel, and speaking against him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the God of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand.”
2 Chronicles 32:17He also wrote letters insulting Yahweh, the God of Israel, and speaking against him, saying, “As the gods of the nations of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of my hand, so shall the God of Hezekiah not deliver his people out of my hand.”
2 Chronicles 32:18They called out with a loud voice in the Jews’ language to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them, and to trouble them; that they might take the city.
2 Chronicles 32:19They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands.
2 Chronicles 33:10Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they didn’t listen.
2 Chronicles 33:17Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, but only to Yahweh their God.