noise, roar, or tumult: the overwhelming sound produced by a surging mass
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The word captures sound at its most overwhelming: the din of a crowd, the roar of rushing water, the thunder of chariot wheels, the clatter and clamor of armies on the move. In every case the sound is not quiet or contained but presses on the listener from all directions at once.
The prophets reach for this word when they want an image of terrifying force. Isaiah compares the roar of enemy nations to the crashing of seas (Isaiah 17:12). Jeremiah uses it twice for the sound God makes when he opens the clouds (Jeremiah 10:13; 51:16). Elijah hears the roar of the coming rain before a drop has fallen (1 Kings 18:41). The word bends readily toward spectacle and power, whether of nature or of human armies.
a multitude, host, or crowd: a large, surging mass of people or troops
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This is the most frequent usage across the Old Testament: a great number of human beings gathered together, especially an army in the field. Chronicles and Ezekiel both rely heavily on this sense, Chronicles for the vast armies of Israel's enemies, Ezekiel for what he calls the "multitude of Egypt," the phrase for Pharaoh's whole military and civil population that he repeats across many chapters (Ezekiel 30-32) as a kind of funeral refrain for a fallen empire.
The word can also describe a crowd without military force: the whole people of Israel assembled (2 Samuel 6:19), or the great teeming throng at a festival (Psalm 42:4). In Genesis 17:4-5 God names Abraham "father of a multitude of nations," giving the word an almost cosmic scope: the promise is not just of many descendants but of an overwhelming, surging population that cannot be counted.
The word always implies mass and size. Even when the multitude is being swallowed up or cut down, the scale is what the text wants you to feel.
abundance, wealth, or a great supply of material things
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A narrower use of the word applies to material possessions, livestock, or provisions in large quantity. Where the previous sense speaks of people who are many, this sense speaks of things that are plentiful. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes warns that whoever loves abundance will not be satisfied by it (Ecclesiastes 5:10);Psalm 37:16 says a little with righteousness beats the great abundance the wicked pile up. In both, the word carries the connotation of a surplus that is larger than it is good.
Isaiah 60:5 combines the sea-roar sense with this wealth sense: the riches of the nations will flow to Zion like the surging sea. Jeremiah 49:32 uses the word for the vast herds of the nomadic Kedarites. In all these cases the idea is a surplus that overwhelms ordinary measure.
carries a sense of surging, overwhelming force that "multitude" loses, the crowd presses and roars as much as it simply numbersIsa 17:12
Both
both name a very large gathering of people or things that exceeds easy countingGen 17:4
Only multitude
the English word "multitude" can feel dignified or neutral; the Hebrew word leans toward turbulence and overwhelming scale
“tumult”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“abundance”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“roar”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How hamon differs from similar Hebrew words
קהלa formal assembly convened for a specific purpose, with an emphasis on the act of gathering; המון stresses size and surging force, while קהל stresses organized meeting
עדהa fixed community or congregation defined by shared identity or covenant membership; המון is the mass in motion, עדה is the defined community at rest
Names the crowd or multitude itself: a great throng of people, an army, or a host, the countable body and not merely the sound it makes.Gen 17:41Ki 20:132Ch 20:2
Reaches beyond people to sheer abundance: a mass of wealth, goods, or riches, the sense of "a great deal" of something.Psa 37:16Ecc 5:10Isa 60:5
Both
Both name the surging roar of gathered nations and crashing seas, and are set side by side in poetic parallel.Isa 13:4Isa 17:12
Both can name the tumult of peoples that only God can still.Psa 65:7
Names the sound itself: the din, uproar, or crash of battle, revelry, or a falling city, never the group that produces it.Amo 2:2Hos 10:14Isa 24:8
Carries a darker edge of ruin, used for the roar that accompanies destruction and judgment.Psa 40:2Jer 25:31Jer 48:45
hamon in the other biblical languages
ὄχλοςGreek“crowd”the New Testament word for a crowd or mob pressing around Jesus or a speaker; both words stress a large human gathering but ὄχλος has no meaning in the "roar" or "abundance" directions that המון covers
At root the noise and uproar a great mass makes, so it names the roar or commotion itself, not just the people.Isa 17:121Sa 14:19Amo 5:23
Commonly a massed army or military host on the march, language a battlefield word with no equivalent in the Gospel crowd.Isa 13:4Dan 11:102Ch 20:2
Stretches to sheer abundance or wealth, a great quantity of things or riches rather than a gathering of persons.Ecc 5:10Psa 37:16
Names a multitude of nations or peoples promised as descendants, a vast people reckoned across generations rather than one assembled throng.Gen 17:4Gen 17:5
Both
Both name a large, unorganized mass of people gathered in one place, the throng as distinct from any ordered assembly or council.1Sa 4:14Mrk 5:24
Names the everyday gathered crowd that presses around a teacher to listen, follow, and be healed: the press of ordinary people in one place, with no military or noise sense attached.Mat 4:25Mrk 2:4Luk 5:1
Marks the common people as a social class set over against their rulers, who fear or court them.Mat 21:46Mrk 12:12
Can become a fickle mob that is stirred and swung for or against, even talked into demanding a death.Mat 27:20Mrk 15:11Act 14:19
πλῆθοςGreek“multitude”a large number or full complement, used for both crowds and quantities; closer to the "multitude" sense of המון, but without the turbulent, surging quality the Hebrew word carries
Above all names the sound itself, the roar and tumult of a surging mass: the din of a crowd, the crash of rushing waters, the thunder of armies, so it is as much a noise word as a number word.Isa 17:121Ki 18:41Jer 10:13
Regularly names a massed military host in the field, above all the doomed multitude of Egypt that Ezekiel repeats like a funeral refrain over Pharaoh's fallen power.Ezk 32:122Ch 20:2Dan 11:11
Both
Both name a great crowd or throng of people gathered in one place.Mrk 3:72Sa 6:19
Both stretch beyond people to a great quantity or abundance of things.Luk 5:6Jer 49:32
Can name the whole organized community or governing council acting as one body, such as the gathered believers or the ruling assembly, an institutional sense the Hebrew word does not carry.Act 6:2Act 15:12Act 4:32
The Hebrew word can be the mass of people itself, not just the noise it makes: a body large enough to be promised, counted, and spoken of as belonging to a king.Gen 17:4Ezk 32:12
It is the ordinary word for an enemy army massed for battle, the whole host a frightened king looks out at and asks God to hand over.2Ch 20:21Ki 20:13
Its roar does not need human throats. Rain still miles off, thunder out of the opened clouds, and crashing seas all make this sound, while the Greek word only ever names noise that people make.1Ki 18:41Jer 10:13
It stretches past both crowds and noise to sheer quantity, naming a great pile of goods or wealth where there is nothing to hear at all.Psa 37:16Ecc 5:10
Both
Both name the confused roar of a crowd, the sound that reaches you before you can make out who is making it or what they are saying. That overlap is why the Greek Old Testament most often reaches for the Greek word when it translates the Hebrew one.1Sa 4:14Act 21:34
In both, the noise itself is read as danger. Leaders listen to it rising and act on what they hear, whether that means calling for weapons or putting off an arrest until the festival crowds have gone home.1Sa 14:19Mat 26:5
The Greek word stays a sound and never becomes the people making it. Nobody counts an uproar, owns one, or is the father of one; it starts when a crowd loses its order and it stops when the crowd quiets down.Act 20:1Mrk 14:2
It reaches into private grief. The racket of a household where a child has just died counts as one of these, with no anger and no threat in it at all, which is a scene the Hebrew word never covers.Mrk 5:38
It carries the weight of a legal charge. Roman officials were expected to keep the streets quiet and could be held to account for disorder they let run, so causing one of these was close to a crime and a man on trial takes care to deny it.Act 24:18Mat 27:24
What scholars say about hamon
HALOT identifies three main senses: noise/roar, multitude/crowd, and abundance/wealth. BDB similarly divides the word into sound, crowd, and riches. Both standard lexica treat the three as shades of one word, not unrelated homonyms, the common thread is the idea of an overwhelming, surging mass, whether of sound waves, human bodies, or material goods. TWOT and NIDOTTE note the word's derivation from the verbal root המה (H1993), which means to roar, growl, or be in tumult, the sound sense is thus the primary or root metaphor, extended to the crowd that makes such noise and then to the wealth that floods in like a surging sea. The heavy concentration of the "multitude of Egypt" usage in Ezekiel 30-32 has attracted comment: Moshe Greenberg (Ezekiel 21-37, Anchor Bible) reads the phrase as a technical designation for Egypt's whole military force and civilian population understood as a doomed collective.