StrongerBible

avir

אָבִיר

HebrewH0046mighty

Appears 6 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 49:24Psa 132:2Psa 132:5Isa 1:24Isa 49:26Isa 60:16
Root family
Word studyah-VEERadjective

What avir means

the Mighty One: an old title for God as the sheer strength standing behind Jacob's family, and used of no one else

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This word turns up only six times, and always in the same shape: bound to a name, either "the Mighty One of Jacob" or, once, "the Mighty One of Israel." It is a title for God and nothing else. No king, no army, no animal is ever called this.

The title belongs to the oldest layer of Israel's memory of God. It first appears in Jacob's blessing over Joseph in Genesis 49:24, where God's strength is what steadies the archer's hands. Later writers reach back for it on purpose. David swears his vow to the Mighty One of Jacob in Psalm 132:2 and 132:5, and Isaiah twice closes a promise of rescue with it: "I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob" (Isaiah 49:26; 60:16). Isaiah 1:24 is the one place where the tone flips, and that same strength is aimed at Israel's own corrupt leaders.

A near twin, אַבִּיר, is written with the same letters and differs only in the small vowel marks under them. That one is the ordinary word for brute strength, and it gets used of bulls, war horses, and strong men. The two spellings are kept apart on purpose, so that the form used of God is never the form used of an animal. Some scholars have argued that the title once pictured God as a bull, the strongest animal a herding family knew, but most now hold back from that, since this particular form is never used of an animal anywhere in the Bible.

It sits alongside the other ancient names for God carried down from the family stories, above all שַׁדַּי, "the Almighty." That title speaks of a power that can bless or break. This one is simpler and more personal: raw strength tied to one family's name, the strong one who belongs to Jacob.

Gen 49:24Psa 132:2Psa 132:5Isa 1:24Isa 49:26Isa 60:16

What scholars say about avir

Standard lexica treat אָבִיר as an entry distinct from אַבִּיר, the two separated by the Masoretic pointing. BDB and HALOT both list אָבִיר only as a divine epithet, restricted to the construct phrases אֲבִיר יַעֲקֹב (Genesis 49:24; Psalm 132:2, 5; Isaiah 49:26; 60:16) and אֲבִיר יִשְׂרָאֵל (Isaiah 1:24); the differentiated pointing is generally read as a deliberate scribal device reserving the form for God. The epithet's concentration in the archaic poetry of Genesis 49 and its reuse in Psalm 132 and Deutero-Isaiah have made it a standard datum in reconstructions of patriarchal religion, notably Alt's clan-deity thesis and Cross's treatment of the patriarchal divine epithets. Albright's proposal that the title originally meant "Bull of Jacob," argued from cognate bovine terminology in Ugaritic and Akkadian, was influential but is now widely resisted: Kapelrud's TDOT article and HALOT both decline it, observing that this pointed form is never predicated of an animal in the biblical text.

Where scholars disagree about avir

Whether the divine title אָבִיר originally carried bovine imagery, so that אֲבִיר יַעֲקֹב meant something like "Bull of Jacob," or whether it simply denotes "the Strong One" with no animal association.

  • majorityThe title denotes strength alone. The pointed form אָבִיר is never predicated of an animal in the Hebrew Bible, and the cognate evidence for a bovine sense is too thin to carry the epithet.; HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. אָבִיר; A. S. Kapelrud, "אָבִיר ʾābîr," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), vol. 1
  • minorityThe epithet was originally bovine, "Bull of Jacob," on the analogy of Ugaritic and Akkadian terms for the bull as a figure of divine power; the Masoretes' distinctive pointing then screened the title off from the ordinary word used of bulls.; W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (London: Athlone, 1968); Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973)

Sources

  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. אָבִירlexicon
  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. אָבִירlexicon
  • A. S. Kapelrud, "אָבִיר ʾābîr," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), vol. 1theological-dictionary
  • W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan (London: Athlone, 1968)monograph
  • Frank Moore Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973)monograph
  • Albrecht Alt, "The God of the Fathers," in Essays on Old Testament History and Religion (Oxford: Blackwell, 1966)article
  • Claus Westermann, Genesis 37-50, Continental Commentary (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1986)commentary

All attested forms of אָבִיר

m s construct

אֲבִיר

Gen 49:24, Psa 132:2, Psa 132:5, Isa 1:24, Isa 49:26, Isa 60:16