StrongerBible

anav

עָנָו

HebrewH6035“humble, meek, ...”

Appears 22 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Num 12:3Job 24:4Psa 9:12(13)Psa 10:12Psa 10:17Psa 22:26(27)Psa 25:9 (2×)Psa 34:2(3)Psa 37:11Psa 69:32(33)Psa 76:9(10)Psa 147:6Psa 149:4Pro 3:34Pro 14:21Isa 11:4Zep 2:3
Word studyResearch-gradeah-NAHVadj

What anav means

the lowly: one bowed down, by hardship or by a settled inner posture, who looks to God for help instead of asserting himself

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is one of the hardest words in the Hebrew Bible to pin to a single English word, and the difficulty is built into the word itself. It holds together two things English keeps apart: a person's outward, social lowliness (being poor, oppressed, pushed to the bottom) and a person's inward bearing (being humble, gentle, unwilling to push back or grab). In Hebrew these are not two separate ideas but one. The picture under the word is a person bent low, and Israel used the same word whether life had bent them down or they had bowed themselves down before God.

The senses below are not different words. They are the same lowliness seen from different angles, and the angles shade into one another. In Amos the focus falls on people the powerful are stepping on. In Numbers and Proverbs the focus falls on a person's gentle, unassertive temper. In the Psalms the two fuse: the worshippers call themselves the lowly because they are both pressed down in life and bent low before God, and they trust that he will lift them up. The word is almost a twin of a closely related Hebrew word for the poor and afflicted (עָנִי), and the old Jewish scribes themselves could not always decide which of the two a verse used, which is the clearest sign that the line between social lowliness and humble piety is one the word does not draw sharply.

The reason it matters is that the Greek Old Testament needed four different Greek words to carry this one Hebrew word, and those four words feed straight into the New Testament:

are, underneath, all renderings of this single word.

Nuances

1ahumble, meek: the inner bearing of a person who does not assert or avenge himself but bows low before God and others
Num 12:3Pro 3:34Pro 16:19Zep 2:3
1bthe afflicted, the poor: those bowed down by oppression and want, at the bottom of society and without power to defend themselves
Job 24:4Pro 14:21Isa 11:4Amo 2:7
1cthe lowly faithful: the worshipping community's name for itself, those pressed down in life and bowed before God who trust him to lift them up and vindicate them
Psa 9:12(13)Psa 10:12Psa 10:17Psa 22:26(27)Psa 25:9 (2×)Psa 34:2(3)Psa 37:11Psa 69:32(33)Psa 76:9(10)Psa 147:6Psa 149:4Isa 29:19

What scholars say about anav

Standard lexica treat this adjective and its near-twin (the word for poor/afflicted) as related but distinct entries while conceding the line between them is unstable; the consensus in current philology is that they are byforms of one root for being bowed down, only partly differentiated in later usage. BDB and the older line following S. R. Driver assign this word to inner disposition ("humble, meek") and its twin to outward circumstance ("afflicted, poor"); NIDOTTE defends that split, while HALOT, DCH, TLOT, and TDOT treat the pair as overlapping byforms. The ketiv/qere variation in the Psalter and wisdom books, which runs in both directions, is the strongest internal evidence that even the scribal tradition could not hold a firm wall between the two. Across the canon a real trajectory is visible: Amos uses the word socio-economically, Numbers 12:3 already carries a dispositional sense, and the postexilic Psalms, Isaiah, Zephaniah, and Proverbs deepen its religious-ethical coloring, with the plural becoming the worshipping community's self-designation. The strong form of the Anawim-party hypothesis (Rahlfs, Causse, Gelin) was dismantled by Lohfink and Pleins; a moderated "theology of the poor" shaping the Psalter's redaction survives in the work of Hossfeld and Zenger.

Where scholars disagree about anav

Whether עָנָו carries a meaning genuinely distinct from its near-twin עָנִי, and in particular whether it names an inner religious humility as against outward material poverty. One line, going back to S. R. Driver and developed by NIDOTTE, assigns this word to disposition ("humble, meek") and the twin to circumstance ("afflicted, poor"). The opposing and now dominant line treats the two as overlapping byforms of one root, with no firm lexical wall, pointing to the scribal ketiv/qere variation that runs in both directions as proof that the distinction cannot be made a rule.

  • majorityByforms of one root with overlapping but distinguishable senses, and no firm wall between humble and poor.; Gerstenberger, ענה II, עָנִי, עָנָו, in TDOT, vol. 11 (Eerdmans, 2001), 230-52; Martin-Achard, ענה II, in TLOT, vol. 2 (Hendrickson, 1997), 931-37; Clines, ed., DCH, vol. 6 (Sheffield, 2007), s.v. עָנָו
  • minorityA real semantic distinction: this word is dispositional humility, the twin is material affliction.; Dumbrell et al., in NIDOTTE, vol. 3 (Zondervan, 1997), 449-64; Brown, Driver, Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon (1906), 776-77, citing S. R. Driver

Whether the plural of this word (the עֲנָוִים) names a definite community of pious poor in postexilic Israel, the so-called Anawim party. The strong form of that hypothesis held that a continuous movement of the faithful poor stretched from the prophets through the Psalms and Qumran into the New Testament. It has been largely abandoned in favor either of a moderated "theology of the poor" shaping the Psalter's editing, or of a skeptical view that "poor" language is conventional and names no fixed group.

  • majorityNo discrete Anawim party; the term was a self-description available to many groups rather than the name of any one sect.; Lohfink, Von der 'Anawim-Partei' zur 'Kirche der Armen', Biblica 67 (1986): 153-76; Pleins, The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible (Westminster John Knox, 2001), 388-404
  • minorityA moderated theology of the poor shaped the Psalter's editing as the worshipping community's self-understanding, without a literal party.; Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 2 and Psalms 3, Hermeneia (Fortress, 2005, 2011)
  • contestedA continuous Anawim party or spirituality of the poor running from the prophets through Qumran to the New Testament.; Gelin, Les pauvres de Yahvé (Cerf, 1953)
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

  • Brown, Driver, Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), 776-77, s.v. עָנָוlexicon
  • Koehler, Baumgartner, Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT), vol. 3 (Brill, 1994-2000), 856-58lexicon
  • Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (DCH), vol. 6 (Sheffield, 2007), s.v. עָנָוlexicon
  • Gerstenberger, ענה II, עָנִי, עָנָו, in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), vol. 11 (Eerdmans, 2001), 230-52theological-dictionary
  • Martin-Achard, ענה II, in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (TLOT), vol. 2 (Hendrickson, 1997), 931-37theological-dictionary
  • Dumbrell et al., עָנָו / עָנִי, in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE), vol. 3 (Zondervan, 1997), 449-64theological-dictionary
  • Lohfink, Von der 'Anawim-Partei' zur 'Kirche der Armen', Biblica 67 (1986): 153-76article
  • Pleins, The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible (Westminster John Knox, 2001), 388-404monograph
  • Gelin, Les pauvres de Yahvé (Cerf, 1953; ET The Poor of Yahweh, Liturgical Press, 1964)monograph
  • Milgrom, Numbers, JPS Torah Commentary (1990), 93-94, on Numbers 12:3commentary
  • Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 56-66, Anchor Bible 19B (Doubleday, 2003), 220-27commentary
  • Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 2 and Psalms 3, Hermeneia (Fortress, 2005, 2011)commentary
  • Wolff, Joel and Amos, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1977), 165-67commentary

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

All attested forms of עָנָו

m p absolute

עֲנָוִים

Psa 9:12, Psa 10:12, Psa 10:17, Psa 22:26, Psa 25:9, Psa 25:9, Psa 34:2, Psa 37:11

m p construct

עַנְוֵי, עֲנִיֵּי

Psa 76:9, Isa 11:4, Zep 2:3, Job 24:4

m s absolute

עֲנָוִים, עָנָיו

Pro 3:34, Num 12:3