StrongerBible

qanah

קָנָה

HebrewH7069buy, get, ...

Appears 84 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 4:1Gen 14:19Gen 14:22Gen 25:10Gen 33:19Gen 39:1Gen 47:19Gen 47:20Gen 47:22Gen 47:23Gen 49:30Gen 50:13Exo 15:16Exo 21:2Lev 22:11Lev 25:14Lev 25:15Lev 25:28Lev 25:30Lev 25:44Lev 25:45Lev 25:50Lev 27:24Deu 28:68Deu 32:6Jos 24:32Rut 4:4Rut 4:5 (2×)Rut 4:8Rut 4:9Rut 4:102Sa 12:32Sa 24:212Sa 24:24 (3×)1Ki 16:242Ki 12:12(13)2Ki 22:61Ch 21:24 (2×)2Ch 34:11Neh 5:8Neh 5:16Psa 74:2Psa 78:54Psa 139:13Pro 1:5Pro 4:5 (2×)Pro 4:7 (2×)Pro 8:22Pro 15:32Pro 16:16 (2×)
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradekah-NAHverb

What qanah means

1

to come into possession of something: to buy it, or otherwise get and hold it as your own

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This is the everyday sense of the word and by far the most common. Its center of gravity is simply coming to own something, whatever the means, and English Bibles reach for a whole family of words to carry it: "buy," "get," "purchase," "acquire," "gain," "own."

Most often it is a plain commercial purchase, paying a price for a field, a person, an animal, or food. The classic scenes are Abraham buying a burial cave and Boaz buying Naomi's land along with Ruth, and the word naturally pairs with its opposite, selling (מָכַר). But it stretches well past the marketplace. Proverbs uses it again and again for getting wisdom and understanding, things no money can buy but that a person can still make their own by effort. It can name the settled state of owning as well, as when an ox knows its owner.

The same word also carries a redemption note when God is the one acquiring. At the Red Sea and in the Psalms, God is said to have gotten Israel as his own, and later Hebrew even uses this word where earlier writers would have said redeem (גָּאַל) or ransom. All of these are angles on one idea: taking lasting possession, so that the thing is now yours.

Nuances

1ato buy: to pay a price for property, people, animals, or goods
Gen 25:10Gen 33:19Gen 39:1Gen 47:19Gen 47:20Gen 47:22Gen 47:23Gen 49:30Gen 50:13Exo 21:2Lev 22:11Lev 25:14
1bto acquire wisdom or understanding: to make it your own by effort, since it cannot simply be bought
Pro 1:5Pro 4:5 (2×)Pro 4:7 (2×)Pro 15:32Pro 16:16 (2×)Pro 18:15Pro 19:8Pro 23:23
1can owner: the one who has come to possess and hold something
TranslatabilityDirect
Isa 1:3
1dto acquire as one's own by rescue or conquest: used of God taking Israel and its land to himself
Exo 15:16Psa 74:2Psa 78:54Isa 11:11
2

to bring into being: to create, form, or father, used of God making the world and a person and of bringing a child to birth

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

In a small but weighty group of poems the word seems to mean not getting something that already exists but bringing it into existence. God is praised as the one who made heaven and earth, who fathered and formed Israel, and who put a person together in the womb. In Proverbs, wisdom says the LORD brought her forth at the very start of his work.

The tie to the ordinary sense is real, and it runs through the idea of a parent. In the ancient world a father was thought to originate his child and also to hold authority over the household, so one word could cover both fathering and possessing. That overlap is why many translations render these verses as "owned" or "possessed" rather than "created" or "fathered," and the same double note likely lived in the older Canaanite phrase for the god who made and owned the earth, which Israel took up and applied to the LORD.

Whether this is a genuinely separate meaning or just the ordinary acquire sense pressed to its limit is one of the oldest debates about this word, and the verses involved carry real theological weight. It is a borderline call that scholars of Hebrew continue to weigh.

Nuances

2ato make or form: God as the maker of heaven and earth and the shaper of a person
Gen 14:19Gen 14:22Deu 32:6Psa 139:13
Gen 14:19

Whether the divine title in this blessing means maker of heaven and earth or possessor/owner of heaven and earth.

  • majorityMaker or creator of heaven and earth; an inherited Canaanite creator-title later applied to the LORD, as the old Greek and Latin versions already read it.; N. M. Sarna, Genesis (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989), 109-10; F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Harvard, 1973), 50-52
  • minorityPossessor or owner of heaven and earth, stressing sovereignty rather than creation; the earliest paraphrase, in the Genesis Apocryphon, reads lord of heaven and earth.; E. Lipiński, Itineraria Phoenicia (OLA 127, 2004), 59-61; R. Thomas, Ugarit-Forschungen 48 (2017): 451-521
2bto bring forth or father a child
Gen 4:1
Gen 4:1

How to read Eve's exclamation at Cain's birth: whether her verb means she acquired a man or brought one forth, and how the word joining her act to the LORD (as "with the help of," "together with," or "from") should be understood. The crux bears directly on whether the verb carries a create or procreate sense at all.

  • contestedShe brought forth or fathered a man with the LORD acting alongside her, taking the verb in its procreative sense and reading the linking particle as marking the LORD's part in the conception; one of the two philologically defensible poles.; D. E. Bokovoy, Did Eve Acquire, Create, or Procreate with Yahweh?, VT 63 (2013): 19-35; V. P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis 1-17 (NICOT, 1990), 220-22
  • contestedShe acquired or gained a man from the LORD, keeping the ordinary sense of the verb and reading the linking particle as a marker of source, as the Septuagint, Targum Onkelos, and Peshitta already understood it; the other defensible pole.; E. van Wolde, What did Eve say? A study of Genesis 4.1b, JSOT 49.4 (2025): 435-48; E. A. Speiser, Genesis (Anchor Bible 1, 1964), 29-32
  • minorityShe created a man on a par with the LORD (the particle read as "equally with"), a strong reading widely judged the least defensible, since the object of the verb is a human child rather than the cosmos.; U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis I (Magnes, ET 1961), 196-204
2cto bring forth: wisdom personified as originated by God at the very beginning
Pro 8:22
Pro 8:22

Whether the LORD created, begot/brought forth, or merely possessed Wisdom at the beginning.

  • majorityThe LORD originated Wisdom, whether by creating or by bringing her forth, as the first of his works; the birth language in the following verses favors an origination sense.; M. V. Fox, Proverbs 1-9 (Anchor Yale Bible 18A, 2000), 279-83; B. K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs 1-15 (NICOT, 2004), 408-11
  • minorityThe LORD possessed or acquired Wisdom, who already existed before he took her to himself.; B. Vawter, Prov 8:22: Wisdom and Creation, JBL 99 (1980): 205-16

What scholars say about qanah

The standard lexica now treat qanah as a single polysemous root, not two homonyms: BDB files everything under one root with create as a contextual sub-sense; HALOT lists acquire, buy, create, and procreate as functionally distinct senses of one root; NIDOTTE (Van Leeuwen), TWOT (Coppes), and TLOT (Schmid) accept a genuine creative sense as established by Northwest Semitic evidence. TDOT (Lipiński) is the outlier, reducing every attestation to acquire/possess with no native create sense, a line pressed further by Vawter (JBL 1980) and Ryan Thomas (UF 2017). The cognates are the crux: Ugaritic qny spans acquire, create/forge, and procreate, and the epithet qnyt ilm of Athirat is read as creatress or begetter of the gods (Cross, CMHE; Rahmouni; Thomas); the Phoenician-Punic divine title 'l qn 'rs, preserved from Karatepe through Palmyra and the Hittite Elkunirsa, is the strongest external case that Genesis 14's qoneh shamayim wa'arets is a fossilized Canaanite creator-formula (Miller, BASOR 1980; Day). The commercial pole dominates statistically and the derived nouns (miqneh livestock, miqnah purchase deed, qinyan property) all sit on the acquire side. The contested creative cluster is confined to archaic or archaizing poetry (Gen 4:1; 14:19, 22; Deut 32:6; Ps 139:13; Prov 8:22), with Deut 32:6 (paired with father, made, and the establishing verb, mirroring Ugaritic KTU 1.10 III 5) and Ps 139:13 (paired with a womb-weaving verb) the two cases that most resist acquire. The Septuagint is the earliest interpretive witness, reserving ktizo (create) for Gen 14 and Prov 8:22, ktaomai (acquire) for ordinary uses, and lytroomai (ransom) for Exod 15:16. Genesis 4:1 fuses acquisition and generation in a deliberate pun on the name Cain, whose own root is the separate q-y-n forge metal; recent study brackets the defensible range of Eve's exclamation between Bokovoy's procreative reading (a man begotten with Yahweh as co-agent, VT 2013) and van Wolde's source reading (a man acquired from Yahweh, on Construction-Grammar grounds, JSOT 2025), with Cassuto's strong reading (created equally with Yahweh) the least defensible where the object is a human child, and the earliest versions (LXX dia tou theou, Targum Onkelos min qodam, Peshitta with the preposition l-) unanimously taking the linking particle as source or instrument. The noun qaneh reed is likewise an unrelated homonym, a culture-word tracked from Sumerian through Greek and Latin into English cane.

Where scholars disagree about qanah

Whether qanah has a genuine create/beget sense in a small archaic-poetic cluster, or whether every occurrence reduces to acquire/possess with no native create sense. (The older proposal of two separate homonymous roots, one meaning acquire and one meaning create, floated by Humbert and KBL1, is no longer defended by any major lexicon.)

  • majorityOne polysemous root that does carry a create/beget sense in certain high poems, established by Ugaritic qny and the Phoenician creator-epithet; most current lexica and the Albright-Cross tradition.; HALOT 3:1112, s.v. קנה; R. C. Van Leeuwen, קנה, in NIDOTTE; F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Harvard, 1973)
  • minorityOne root whose only real sense is acquire/possess; the apparent create texts are the acquire sense stretched by context, and cognate claims for create are overread.; E. Lipiński, קנה, in TDOT vol. 13; B. Vawter, Prov 8:22: Wisdom and Creation, JBL 99 (1980): 205-16; R. Thomas, Ugarit-Forschungen 48 (2017): 451-521
In-depth research

These are research papers, so they may be hard to read without scholarly background. They are useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. קנהlexicon
  • HALOT 3:1112, s.v. קנהlexicon
  • E. Lipiński, קנה, in TDOT vol. 13theological-dictionary
  • R. C. Van Leeuwen, קנה, in NIDOTTEtheological-dictionary
  • F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Harvard, 1973), 15-17, 50-52monograph
  • P. D. Miller, El the Creator of Earth, BASOR 239 (1980): 43-46article
  • M. V. Fox, Proverbs 1-9 (Anchor Yale Bible 18A, 2000), 279-83commentary
  • B. K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs 1-15 (NICOT, 2004), 408-11commentary
  • B. Vawter, Prov 8:22: Wisdom and Creation, JBL 99 (1980): 205-16article
  • R. Thomas, אל קנה ארץ: Creator, Begetter, or Owner of the Earth?, Ugarit-Forschungen 48 (2017): 451-521article
  • P. Humbert, Qana en hebreu biblique, in Festschrift A. Bertholet (Mohr, 1950), 251-66article
  • U. Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis I: From Adam to Noah (Magnes, ET 1961), 196-204commentary
  • N. M. Sarna, Genesis (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989), 31-32, 109-10commentary
  • D. E. Bokovoy, Did Eve Acquire, Create, or Procreate with Yahweh? A Grammatical and Contextual Reassessment of קניתי in Genesis 4:1, Vetus Testamentum 63 (2013): 19-35article
  • E. van Wolde, What did Eve say? A study of Genesis 4.1b, JSOT 49.4 (2025): 435-448article
  • J. Tigay, Deuteronomy (JPS Torah Commentary, 1996)commentary
  • H.-J. Kraus, Psalmen 60-150 (BKAT 15/2; ET Fortress, 1989)commentary

All attested forms of קָנָה

qal imperative 2ms

קְנֵה

Gen 47:19, Rut 4:4, Rut 4:8, Pro 4:5, Pro 4:5, Pro 4:7, Pro 4:7, Pro 23:23

qal infinitive-construct construct

קְנוֹת, קְנֹה, קְנוֹתְ

2Sa 24:21, 2Ki 12:12, 2Ki 22:6, 2Ch 34:11, Pro 16:16, Pro 17:16, Isa 11:11, Jer 32:7

qal perfect 3ms

קָנָה, קָנָ, קָּנֶ

Gen 25:10, Gen 47:22, Gen 49:30, Gen 50:13, Jos 24:32, 2Sa 12:3, Lev 27:24, Pro 8:22

qal participle m s absolute

הַקּוֹנֶה, קֹנֶה, קֹּנֶה, כַּקּוֹנֶה, קוֹנֶה

Pro 20:14, Ezk 7:12, Deu 28:68, Pro 19:8, Lev 25:28, Lev 25:30, Isa 24:2, Pro 15:32

qal perfect 2ms

קָנִיתָ, קָנִיתָה

Exo 15:16, Psa 74:2, Psa 139:13, Isa 43:24, Jer 13:4, Rut 4:5

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּקֶן, וַיִּקְנֵ

Gen 33:19, Gen 47:20, 2Sa 24:24, 1Ki 16:24, Gen 39:1

qal perfect 1cs

קָנִיתִי

Gen 4:1, Gen 47:23, Rut 4:9, Rut 4:10, Ecc 2:7

qal participle m s construct

קֹנֵ, קֹנֵה

Lev 25:50, Isa 1:3, Gen 14:19, Gen 14:22

qal imperfect 3ms

יִקְנֶה

Lev 22:11, Pro 1:5, Pro 18:15

qal infinitive-absolute absolute

קָנֹה, קָנוֹ

Lev 25:14, 1Ch 21:24, 2Sa 24:24

qal consecutive-imperfect 1cs

וָאֶקְנֶה

Jer 13:2, Jer 32:9

qal consecutive-perfect 2ms

וְקָנִיתָ

Jer 13:1, Jer 19:1

qal imperfect 1cs

אֶקְנֶה

2Sa 24:24, 1Ch 21:24

qal imperfect 2mp

תִּקְנוּ

Lev 25:44, Lev 25:45

qal imperfect 2ms

תִּקְנֶה

Exo 21:2, Lev 25:15

qal perfect 1cp

קָנִינוּ

Neh 5:8, Neh 5:16

hiphil perfect 3ms

הִקְנַ

Zec 13:5

niphal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְנִקְנָה

Jer 32:43

niphal imperfect 3mp

יִקָּנוּ

Jer 32:15

qal imperfect 3mp

יִקְנוּ

Jer 32:44

qal participle m p construct

קֹנֵי

Zec 11:5

qal perfect 3fs

קָנְתָה

Psa 78:54