StrongerBible

gannav

גַּנָּב

HebrewH1590“thief”

Appears 17 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 22:2(1)Exo 22:7(6)Exo 22:8(7)Deu 24:7Job 24:14Job 30:5Psa 50:18Pro 6:30Pro 29:24Isa 1:23Jer 2:26Jer 48:27Jer 49:9Hos 7:1Jol 2:9Oba 1:5
Root family
Word studygah-NAHVnoun

What gannav means

a thief: one who takes what belongs to another by stealth.

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

A thief is someone who takes what belongs to another in secret. That stealth is the heart of the word: a thief slips in unseen, unlike a robber who seizes goods by open force (the violent plunderer, פָּרִיץ). The word names the doer behind the verb גָּנַב, "to steal."

Israel's law handled this crime through repayment rather than blood. A caught thief made restitution, paying back what was taken and more, and a thief who broke in at night could be struck down without guilt. The one exception was grave: stealing a person, not property, was a capital crime, and Deuteronomy 24:7 calls the kidnapper by this same word.

The prophets and poets reach for the thief as a ready picture:

  • the shame of a thief caught in the act stands for a nation exposed in its guilt (Jeremiah 2:26)
  • an invader slips in through the windows "like a thief" (Joel 2:9)
  • corrupt leaders are branded "companions of thieves" (Isaiah 1:23)

In each case the point is the same: something done secretly, shamefully, and against another's right.

Nuances

1aa thief who steals goods or property, taking another's belongings by stealth.
Exo 22:2(1)Exo 22:7(6)Exo 22:8(7)Job 24:14Job 30:5Psa 50:18Pro 6:30Pro 29:24Jer 2:26Jer 48:27Jer 49:9Hos 7:1
1bone who steals a person: a kidnapper or man-stealer.
Deu 24:7

What scholars say about gannav

In the standard critical lexicons (HALOT, BDB, DCH) the noun is straightforwardly "thief," the agent noun of the root גנב "to steal." Two points are widely noted. First, the word denotes secret taking, which sets it against the terms for open plunder and robbery by force; the same distinction is preserved in Greek between κλέπτης (thief) and λῃστής (bandit/robber). Second, biblical law separates two categories that this one noun can cover: theft of property, penalized by multiplied restitution (Exodus 22), and the theft of a human being, treated as a capital crime (Deuteronomy 24:7; cf. Exodus 21:16). The lexicons file Deuteronomy 24:7 under the single sense "thief," with the kidnapping force supplied by the object.

Sources

  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. גַּנָּבlexicon
  • BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. גַּנָּבlexicon
  • DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. גַּנָּבlexicon

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

All attested forms of גַּנָּב

m s absolute

גַּנָּב

Exo 22:2, Exo 22:7, Exo 22:8, Deu 24:7, Job 24:14, Job 30:5, Psa 50:18, Pro 6:30

m p absolute

גַּנָּבִים

Isa 1:23, Jer 48:27, Jer 49:9, Oba 1:5