StrongerBible

ov

אוֹב

HebrewH0178“medium, familiar spirit, ...”

Appears 17 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Lev 19:31Lev 20:6Lev 20:27Deu 18:111Sa 28:31Sa 28:7 (2×)1Sa 28:81Sa 28:92Ki 21:62Ki 23:241Ch 10:132Ch 33:6Job 32:19Isa 8:19Isa 19:3Isa 29:4
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeOHVnoun

What ov means

1

a means of consulting the dead: the summoned spirit, the ritual pit or instrument used to reach it, or the medium who conducts the rite

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

This word belongs to the outlawed world of consulting the dead, and it slides among three connected things: the ghost that answers from below the ground, the pit or instrument used to reach it, and the human medium who runs the rite. One word could carry all three because, in the culture that produced it, they were three faces of a single practice.

The word almost never travels alone. In eleven of its appearances it is paired with the "knowing spirit" (יִדְּעֹנִי), a matched term for a specialist in hidden knowledge, and in the account of Josiah's reforms it is purged alongside household ancestor-images (תְּרָפִים). That last setting shows it could also name something physical you could burn.

Over time the center of gravity shifted. The oldest texts point to a physical installation someone could build, remove, or destroy; the prophets use the word for the thin, chirping voice of the dead itself; and the later laws use it for the forbidden specialist. This is why English Bibles reach for "medium," "familiar spirit," "ghost," or "necromancer" depending on the verse: no single English word holds the whole range.

Nuances

1athe spirit of a dead person, summoned to speak from below the ground
TranslatabilityApproximate
Lev 20:27Deu 18:11Isa 8:19Isa 19:3Isa 29:4
1bthe pit or ritual instrument through which the dead were summoned, and by extension the necromantic installation itself
1Sa 28:7 (2×)1Sa 28:82Ki 21:62Ki 23:241Ch 10:132Ch 33:6
1Sa 28:7

What the medium of Endor possesses when she is called a "mistress of an ov": a spirit she controls, a ritual pit she operates, or a cult image she manipulates.

  • majorityA spirit or ghost she controls and deploys.; J. Tropper, Nekromantie (AOAT 223, 1989); T. J. Lewis, Cults of the Dead in Ancient Israel and Ugarit (HSM 39, 1989)
  • minorityA ritual pit or bottle-shaped hollow she operates.; H. A. Hoffner, TDOT I: 130-134
  • minorityA physical cult image or effigy she manipulates.; C. B. Hays and J. M. LeMon, JAEI 1/4 (2010): 1-4
1cthe human specialist who consulted the dead: a medium or necromancer
TranslatabilityApproximate
Lev 19:31Lev 20:61Sa 28:31Sa 28:9
2

a wineskin: a leather bag for holding wine

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

In its one appearance under this sense, the word means an ordinary leather wine bag. Elihu says his chest is so full of words that it is ready to split like new wineskins swollen with fermenting wine.

Whether this is the very same word as the necromantic term or an unrelated look-alike is an old question. Ancient Greek translators rendered it plainly as "wineskin," treating it as a separate item, and most modern reference works either list it as a distinct word or leave the connection open.

Job 32:19

What scholars say about ov

The word sits at the center of a long debate opened by H. A. Hoffner's 1967 study and TDOT article, which derived it from a second-millennium Hittite and Hurrian ritual pit (a-a-bi) and treated the spirit, the medium, and the practice as metonymic extensions. J. Tropper's Nekromantie (1989) countered that the word is inner-Semitic, tied to the term for "father, ancestor," and denotes the spirit of the deified dead; this spirit-first reading now dominates the lexica (HALOT, which alone formally splits off a homonymous "wineskin" at Job 32:19; DCH; Gesenius 18th edition). BDB and older Gesenius had instead made the wineskin primary and derived the ghostly senses from a hollow, muttering sound. A separate historical dispute, pressed by B. Schmidt, treats Israelite necromancy as a late Neo-Assyrian import retrojected by later writers, against the cult-of-the-dead reconstruction of van der Toorn, Lewis, Bloch-Smith, and Hays. J. Lemanski (2024) proposes a staged development, from pit or instrument in the Endor account, to spirit in Isaiah, to medium in the legal and Chronistic texts, that accommodates most of the evidence.

Where scholars disagree about ov

Whether the "wineskin" of Job 32:19 is the same word as the necromantic term or an unrelated look-alike that only shares its spelling.

  • majorityTwo separate words: the wineskin is a distinct term, and the necromantic word is unrelated to it.; HALOT, s.v. אוֹב I, II
  • minorityOne word: the necromantic sense grew out of an original "wineskin," by way of a wineskin-shaped ritual pit or the resonant belly of the medium.; BDB, s.v. אוֹב

What the word originally meant, and therefore which of its senses is primary: a ritual pit, or the spirit of the dead.

  • majorityThe spirit of a dead or deified ancestor, from an inner-Hebrew tie to the word for "father, ancestor"; the pit is a parallel practice, not the source. This is now the dominant reading in the lexica.; J. Tropper, Nekromantie (AOAT 223, 1989); K. van der Toorn, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel (SHCANE 7, 1996)
  • minorityA ritual pit or hollow dug to give the dead access to the living, borrowed from a shared Hittite and Hurrian ritual vocabulary; the spirit and the medium are later extensions.; H. A. Hoffner, JBL 86 (1967): 385-401
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. אוֹבlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. אוֹב I, IIlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. אוֹבlexicon
  • Gesenius, 18th ed., s.v. אוֹבlexicon
  • H. A. Hoffner, "אוֹב," TDOT I: 130-134dictionary
  • H. A. Hoffner, "Second Millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ʾÔḆ," JBL 86 (1967): 385-401article
  • J. Tropper, Nekromantie: Totenbefragung im Alten Orient und im Alten Testament (AOAT 223, 1989)monograph
  • J. Tropper, "Spirit of the Dead," DDD² (1999): 806-809dictionary
  • K. van der Toorn, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel (SHCANE 7, 1996)monograph
  • T. J. Lewis, Cults of the Dead in Ancient Israel and Ugarit (HSM 39, 1989)monograph
  • J. Milgrom, Leviticus 17-22 (Anchor Bible 3A, 2000)commentary
  • B. B. Schmidt, Israel's Beneficent Dead (FAT 11, 1994)monograph
  • C. B. Hays and J. M. LeMon, "The Dead and Their Images: An Egyptian Etymology for Hebrew ʾôb," JAEI 1/4 (2010): 1-4article
  • J. Lemanski, "Pit, Spirit, Necromancer or Instrument Used in Necromancy?," Biblical Annals 14/4 (2024): 567-595article
  • J. Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39 (Anchor Bible 19, 2000)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of אוֹב

m s absolute

אוֹב, בָּאוֹב, כְּאוֹב

Lev 20:27, Deu 18:11, 1Sa 28:7, 1Sa 28:7, 2Ki 21:6, 2Ch 33:6, 1Sa 28:8, 1Ch 10:13

f p absolute

אֹבוֹת, אֹבֹת

1Sa 28:3, 1Sa 28:9, 2Ki 23:24, Job 32:19, Isa 8:19, Isa 19:3, Lev 19:31, Lev 20:6