Bible word study

Zanah (Strong’s H2181): Meaning in the Bible

Zanah (זָנָה) is the Hebrew word numbered H2181 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to commit adultery (usually of the female, and less often of simple fornication, rarely of involuntary ravishment); figuratively, to commit idolatry (the Jewish people being regarded as the spouse of Jehovah). In the King James Bible it is translated (cause to) commit fornication, (be an, play the) harlot, (cause to be, play the) whore.

• Original wordזָנָה
• Transliterationzânâh
• Pronunciationzaw-naw'
• Part of speechverb (v)
• Strong’s numberH2181
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primitive root [highly fed and therefore wanton];

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Zanah appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Zanah (H2181) stands behind 92 English renderings in 80 verses across 20 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Ezekiel (22), Hosea (14), Leviticus (9).

How the King James Bible renders Zanah, by count

• harlot31 of 92 (34 percent)
• whoring19 of 92 (21 percent)
• whoredom11 of 92 (12 percent)
• whore9 of 92 (10 percent)
• harlots5 of 92 (5 percent)
• whoredoms4 of 92 (4 percent)

Three places to read Zanah

• Genesis 34:31 And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?
• 1 Chronicles 5:25 And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them.
• Ezekiel 16:31 In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Zanah in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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