Aph (אַף, Strong's H639) is a Hebrew word. Strong's defines it as properly, the nose or nostril; hence, the face, and occasionally a person; also (from the rapid breathing in passion) ire. The King James Bible translates it as anger(-gry), before, countenance, face, forebearing, forehead, (long-) suffering, nose, nostril, snout, × worthy, wrath.

What is the Strong's number for Aph?

The Strong's number for Aph (אַף) is H639. It is a Hebrew word from Strong's public-domain dictionary keyed to the King James Bible.

Bible word study

Aph (Strong’s H639): Meaning in the Bible

Aph (אַף) is the Hebrew word numbered H639 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as properly, the nose or nostril; hence, the face, and occasionally a person; also (from the rapid breathing in passion) ire. In the King James Bible it is translated anger(-gry), before, countenance, face, forebearing.

אַף

ʼaph · Hebrew

Strong’s H639 · af

Original wordאַף
Transliterationʼaph
Pronunciationaf
Part of speechnoun (masculine) (n-m)
Strong’s numberH639
LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

properly, the nose or nostril; hence, the face, and occasionally a person; also (from the rapid breathing in passion) ire

Derivation. from H599;

How the King James Bible translates it

anger(-gry), before, countenance, face, forebearing, forehead, (long-) suffering, nose, nostril, snout, × worthy, wrath. (The × marks places where the word shapes the phrasing rather than being rendered by a single English word.)

Where Aph appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Aph (H639) stands behind 273 English renderings in 266 verses across 32 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Psalms (34), Isaiah (26), Jeremiah (24).

How the King James Bible renders Aph, by count

anger172 of 273 (63 percent)
wrath42 of 273 (15 percent)
face19 of 273 (7 percent)
nostrils13 of 273 (5 percent)
nose11 of 273 (4 percent)
angry4 of 273 (1 percent)

Three places to read Aph

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
2 Chronicles 12:12 And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well.
Isaiah 9:21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

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 Aph 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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