What does יָם (yām) mean in the Bible?
יָם is the common Hebrew noun for sea, a large body of water, or, in geographical usage, the west. The local index currently counts about 396 occurrences.
Hebrew · H3220
יָם
A sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water ; specifically (with the article), the Mediterranean Sea ; sometimes a large river , or an artifical basin ; locally, the west , or (rarely) the south
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יָם H3220
Pronunciation yām
What does יָם (yām) mean in the Bible?
יָם is the common Hebrew noun for sea, a large body of water, or, in geographical usage, the west. The local index currently counts about 396 occurrences.
Reader summary
Full entry for יָם (H3220) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H3220?
The BSB source-word alignment has 396 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the sea (83), Sea (57), of the sea (52), west (17), . . . (12).
Where does יָם (yām) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (60), Joshua (52), Exodus (39), Psalms (38).
What This Word Actually Means
יָם is the common Hebrew noun for sea, a large body of water, or, in geographical usage, the west. The local index currently counts about 396 occurrences. It can name the seas in creation, the Sea of Reeds in the Exodus, the Mediterranean, inland bodies of water, and poetic waters that threaten or praise. Not every occurrence symbolizes chaos, and the sea in Genesis 1 is part of the created order rather than an uncreated power.
Genesis 1:10 says God names the gathered waters Seas and sees the ordered creation as good. Job 38:8-11 poetically depicts God bounding the sea. Exodus 14 narrates Israel’s passage through the Sea of Reeds and the destruction of Pharaoh’s pursuing force. These texts establish God’s sovereignty over waters and his saving judgment without requiring a reconstruction of a hidden battle with a Canaanite sea deity.
Psalm 107:23-30 describes sailors in a real storm who cry to the Lord and are brought to their desired haven. The scene can wisely illuminate other crises, but the sailors do not lexically represent all people in distress, and the passage is not a promise that every present storm will be stilled on demand. Psalm 89:9 praises the Lord’s rule over the raging sea within a psalm wrestling with the Davidic covenant.
For teaching, יָם offers concrete and poetic settings for creation, geography, threat, deliverance, and divine rule. New Testament sea scenes and Revelation’s sea imagery continue these themes, but each must be interpreted in its own narrative or vision rather than placed into one inevitable sequence from chaos to removal.
Lexical sourcelocal_artifactPassage contextCanonical parallelBook contextPastoral application
How the Bible Uses It
יָם (yam) appears about 396 times in the local OT index. Genesis gives the ordered yam (created and bounded). Exodus gives the redemptive yam (the sea parted and then returned on Egypt). Numbers through Joshua give the geographical yam (the Mediterranean and the Jordan). The Psalms give the theological yam: Ps 46 (the yam threatening, but YHWH is our refuge), Ps 89 (YHWH rules the raging yam), Ps 95 (the sea is his for he made it), Ps 107 (the storm on the yam stilled by YHWH).
Isaiah gives the prophetic yam: drying of the sea for the new Exodus, the sea's praise (Isa 42:10). Revelation inherits the eschatological yam: the sea gave up its dead (Rev 20:13) and the new creation has no more yam (Rev 21:1).
- Ps.107.23
Others went out to sea in ships, conducting trade on the mighty waters.
The sailors-at-sea as the image of all human vulnerability: those on the yam see 'the deeds of YHWH, his wondrous works in the deep' (v. 24) — they see both the storm (vv. 25-27) and the stilling (vv. 28-30). The yam-context is not chosen for its pleasantness but for its extremity: 'their courage melted away in their evil plight; they reeled and staggered like drunken men' (v.
27). The yam-storm is the condition in which YHWH's deliverance is most visible — and the stilling is 'the desired haven' (menudat chafts, v. 30). The pastor who preaches Psalm 107 to people in the storms of overwhelming circumstances gives them the sailors' testimony: YHWH stills yam-level crises.
- Exod.14.21
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were divided,
The redemptive yam-parting: the yam that stood between Israel and freedom becomes the road through which they pass and the grave through which Egypt perishes. The same yam is both salvation and judgment — for Israel, dry land; for Egypt, returning waters. The yam does not choose sides; YHWH does. The Exodus yam is the template for all subsequent acts of divine rescue through overwhelming circumstances: Isa 43:2 ('when you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you') is the covenant application of the Exodus pattern.
- Ps.89.9
You rule the raging sea; when its waves mount up, You still them.
The covenant-grounding of yam-sovereignty: Psalm 89 is the psalm of the Davidic covenant's apparent failure (vv. 38-51) and the divine faithfulness that must still be true. The yam-sovereignty of verse 9 is not an abstraction — it is the foundation of covenant confidence. If YHWH can still the raging sea, then even the apparent failure of the Davidic line (v.
44) Is within his sovereign control. The preacher can use this structure: the congregation facing covenant-level disappointments (prayers unanswered, promises apparently unfulfilled) is addressed by YHWH's yam-sovereignty as the ground of continuing trust.
- Ps.46.2
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth is transformed and the mountains are toppled into the depths of the seas,
The yam as cosmological threat: if the mountains fell into the heart of the yam, if creation itself dissolved into the primordial sea — even then, YHWH is 'our refuge and strength' (v. 1). Psalm 46 uses the maximum chaos image (mountains into yam) to locate the minimum condition of fear: none. The yam at its most threatening is still not threatening enough to displace YHWH as refuge. Martin Luther's 'A Mighty Fortress' drew from this psalm the language that creation can shake and still the fortress holds.
- Isa.11.15
The Lord will devote to destruction the gulf of the Sea of Egypt; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates. He will split it into seven streams for men to cross with dry sandals.
The new-Exodus yam drying: 'YHWH will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea.' The redemptive pattern of Exodus 14 is repeated in eschatological form: the sea dries again for the second, greater Exodus (Isa 11:16). Isaiah's expectation of a new crossing of the yam becomes the NT's picture of the final gathering — and Revelation 15:2's overcomers standing beside the sea of glass singing the Song of Moses is the ultimate fulfillment of the yam-crossing image.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It the sea 83× Exodus 14:2, Exodus 14:9, Exodus 14:16, Exodus 14:21
Sea 57× Genesis 14:3, Exodus 10:19, Exodus 13:18, Exodus 15:4
of the sea 52× Genesis 1:26, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 9:2, Genesis 32:12
west 17× Exodus 10:19, Joshua 18:12, 1 Kings 7:25, 1 Chronicles 9:24
. . . 12× Genesis 22:17, Genesis 49:13, Exodus 14:30, Joshua 11:4
to the west 12× Genesis 12:8, Genesis 28:14, Exodus 26:27, Exodus 36:32
on the west 10× Exodus 27:12, Numbers 3:23, Numbers 34:6, Numbers 35:5
of the seas 9× Genesis 1:22, Deuteronomy 33:19, Job 6:3, Psalms 8:8
at the Sea 7× Numbers 34:5, Joshua 15:4, Joshua 15:11, Joshua 16:3
into the sea 6× Exodus 14:28, Exodus 15:1, Exodus 15:4, Exodus 15:19
westward 6× Joshua 15:10, Joshua 16:3, Joshua 16:8, Joshua 18:15
to the sea 5× Joshua 15:46, 1 Kings 5:9, Isaiah 42:10, Jeremiah 48:32
from sea 4× Psalms 72:8, Amos 8:12, Micah 7:12, Zechariah 9:10
in the sea 4× Numbers 11:22, Isaiah 43:16, Ezekiel 26:5, Ezekiel 26:18
and the sea 3× Exodus 14:2, Exodus 15:10, Exodus 20:11
as the sea 3× Isaiah 11:9, Lamentations 2:13, Ezekiel 26:3
by sea 3× 1 Kings 5:9, Ezra 3:7, Isaiah 18:2
in the seas 3× Leviticus 11:10, Psalms 135:6, Ezekiel 32:2
Let the sea 3× 1 Chronicles 16:32, Psalms 96:11, Psalms 98:7
like the sea 3× Jeremiah 6:23, Jeremiah 49:23, Jeremiah 50:42
On the west side 3× Numbers 2:18, Ezekiel 48:10, Ezekiel 48:18
seas 3× Genesis 1:10, Psalms 65:5, Isaiah 17:12
the seas 3× Nehemiah 9:6, Psalms 24:2, Psalms 69:34
The west 3× Exodus 38:12, Ezekiel 41:12, Ezekiel 42:19
- 2× Jeremiah 48:32, Jonah 1:4
(the Salt Sea 2× Deuteronomy 3:17, Joshua 12:3
[The Sea] 2× 1 Kings 7:25, 2 Chronicles 4:4
And on the west 2× Ezekiel 47:20, Ezekiel 48:34
and west 2× Genesis 13:14, Joshua 11:3
at sea 2× 1 Kings 10:22, Proverbs 30:19
by the Sea 2× Isaiah 21:1, Jeremiah 46:18
for the sea 2× Proverbs 8:29, Jeremiah 5:22
from the west 2× Isaiah 24:14, Hosea 11:10
from the western 2× Ezekiel 45:7
of the Salt Sea 2× Joshua 15:2, Joshua 18:19
the coast 2× Joshua 5:1, Ezekiel 25:16
the seashore 2× 2 Samuel 17:11, 1 Kings 4:20
the west side 2× Exodus 26:22, Exodus 36:27
through the sea 2× Isaiah 63:11, Zechariah 10:11
to sea 2× Ezekiel 27:33, Micah 7:12
[and] westward 1× Ezekiel 48:21
[it] 1× Exodus 14:21
against the sea 1× Habakkuk 3:8
and along the seacoast 1× Deuteronomy 1:7
and from the west 1× Isaiah 49:12
and south 1× Psalms 107:3
And the western 1× Joshua 15:12
as far as the Red Sea 1× Joshua 24:6
at the far western 1× Ezekiel 46:19
by seafaring [men] 1× Ezekiel 26:17
by the seas 1× Ezekiel 27:34
extending westward 1× Ezekiel 45:7
from the sea 1× 1 Kings 18:44
having the Sea 1× Joshua 17:10
her sea 1× Jeremiah 51:36
is the sea 1× Psalms 104:25
it 1× Nehemiah 9:11
led through the sea 1× Psalms 77:19
O sea 1× Psalms 114:5
of its coastland 1× Jeremiah 47:7
of the [Nile] 1× Isaiah 19:5
on the high seas 1× Proverbs 23:34
on the sea 1× Ezekiel 26:17
on the seashore 1× Jeremiah 33:22
out to sea 1× Psalms 107:23
over the sea 1× Psalms 89:25
so it 1× Jonah 1:12
than the sea 1× Job 11:9
the [Dead] Sea 1× Ezekiel 47:8
the Red Sea 1× Joshua 24:6
the Salt Sea 1× Joshua 3:16
the seacoast 1× Zephaniah 2:5
this sea 1× Jonah 1:11
to the Great Sea 1× Joshua 23:4
to the west side 1× Ezekiel 48:1
to the western 1× Ezekiel 48:21
to west 1× Zechariah 14:4
toward the west 1× Daniel 8:4
vvv 1× Ezekiel 47:8
was the Salt Sea 1× Joshua 15:5
was the sea 1× Nahum 3:8
was the water 1× Nahum 3:8
was the western 1× Joshua 18:14
west of 1× Joshua 5:1
west side 1× Ezekiel 48:23
western 1× Numbers 34:6
whether in the seas 1× Leviticus 11:9
while the sea 1× Job 28:14
will be the western 1× Ezekiel 47:20
yet the sea 1× Ecclesiastes 1:7
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 1:10 יַמִּ֑ים to seas Noun - masculine plural Genesis 1:22 בַּיַּמִּ֔ים to of the seas Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine plural Genesis 1:26 הַיָּ֜ם to of the sea Article | Noun - masculine singular Genesis 1:28 הַיָּם֙ to of the sea Article | Noun - masculine singular Genesis 9:2 הַיָּ֖ם to of the sea Article | Noun - masculine singular Genesis 12:8 מִיָּם֙ to to the west Preposition-m | Noun - masculine singular Genesis 13:14 וָיָֽמָּה׃ to and west Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular | third person feminine singular Genesis 14:3 יָ֥ם to Sea Noun - masculine singular construct Genesis 22:17 הַיָּ֑ם to . . . Article | Noun - masculine singular Genesis 28:14 יָ֥מָּה to to the west Noun - masculine singular | third person feminine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Genesis 1:10
Aligned rows 396
Books represented 35
Genesis 13 Exodus 39 Leviticus 2 Numbers 19 Deuteronomy 14 Joshua 52 Judges 3 1 Samuel 1 2 Samuel 2 1 Kings 16 2 Kings 4 1 Chronicles 3 2 Chronicles 11 Ezra 1 Nehemiah 4 Esther 1 Job 12 Psalms 38 Proverbs 3 Ecclesiastes 2 Isaiah 31 Jeremiah 18 Lamentations 1 Ezekiel 60 Daniel 2 Hosea 3 Joel 2 Amos 5 Jonah 12 Micah 3 Nahum 3 Habakkuk 4 Zephaniah 3 Haggai 1 Zechariah 8
Source forms
הַיָּ֖ם 34x hay·yām Genesis 9:2, Genesis 41:49, Exodus 14:16, Exodus 14:21
הַיָּ֔ם 21x hay·yām Genesis 32:12, Exodus 14:9, Numbers 13:29, Joshua 5:1
הַיָּ֑ם 17x hay·yām Genesis 22:17, Exodus 14:2, Exodus 14:26, Exodus 14:29
הַיָּֽם׃ 14x hay·yām Exodus 14:2, Exodus 14:23, Exodus 14:27, Exodus 14:30
יָ֔ם 14x yām Exodus 27:12, Numbers 34:6, Joshua 15:12, 2 Samuel 22:16
יַם־ 14x yam- Exodus 13:18, Numbers 14:25, Numbers 21:4, Numbers 33:10
יָ֑ם 12x yām Exodus 15:10, Job 14:11, Job 38:8, Job 38:16
יָ֣ם 12x yām Exodus 23:31, Numbers 34:12, Deuteronomy 3:17, Deuteronomy 4:49
Parsing patterns
Article | Noun - masculine singular 140x Genesis 1:26, Genesis 1:28, Genesis 9:2, Genesis 22:17
Noun - masculine singular 53x Exodus 10:19, Exodus 15:8, Exodus 15:10, Exodus 27:12
Noun - masculine singular | third person feminine singular 47x Genesis 28:14, Exodus 10:19, Exodus 26:22, Exodus 26:27
Noun - masculine singular construct 38x Genesis 14:3, Exodus 13:18, Exodus 23:31, Numbers 14:25
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - masculine singular 23x Exodus 14:28, Exodus 15:1, Exodus 15:4, Exodus 15:19
Noun - masculine plural 21x Genesis 1:10, Genesis 49:13, Deuteronomy 33:19, Judges 5:17
Preposition-m | Noun - masculine singular 15x Genesis 12:8, Joshua 8:9, Joshua 8:12, Joshua 8:13
Article | Noun - masculine singular | third person feminine singular 10x Numbers 34:5, Joshua 15:12, Joshua 16:6, Joshua 16:8
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- God's sovereignty over the sea in Scripture is a claim about his rule over the most threatening, uncontrollable aspects of existence. When you face what feels like chaos or threat, the sea-sovereignty texts are about the God who holds those forces in his hand.
- The sea's absence in the new creation (Rev 21:1) is not about the loss of oceans but about the final elimination of everything threatening, dangerous, and chaotic. Hope is oriented toward total shalom.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that the sea in Genesis 1 is a personified evil power that God defeated in a combat myth — Genesis 1 subdues the chaos theme by making God's creative ordering normative and effortless.
- Do not use 'no more sea' in Revelation 21 to argue for a literal oceanless new earth — the sea throughout Revelation is a symbol of chaos and threat, not primarily a geographical feature.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Represents cosmic chaos and divine boundary; the Mediterranean defines Israel's western limit and theological horizon.
Source Gloss
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water ; specifically (with the article), the Mediterranean Sea ; sometimes a large river , or an artifical basin ; locally, the west , or (rarely) the south
Extended definition Source: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Represents cosmic chaos and divine boundary; the Mediterranean defines Israel's western limit and theological horizon.
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water; specifically (with the article), the Mediterranean Sea; sometimes a large river, or an artifical basin; locally, the west, or (rarely) the south BDB: sea Usage: sea (× -faring man, (-shore)), south, west (-ern, side, -ward).
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witnesses
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
Large body of water used metaphorically for overwhelming destruction and chaos
Literal body of water as habitat for aquatic creatures in dietary law context
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 396 lexical occurrence verses.
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
יָם ranges from ordinary geography to powerful poetic imagery. Genesis names the seas within God’s good creation, Exodus recounts deliverance through the Sea of Reeds, and the Psalms praise God’s rule over stormy waters. Some contexts use the sea for threat or instability, while others simply identify a body of water or western direction.
Psalm 107 assures worshipers that sailors who cried to the Lord were delivered in the narrated crisis. That testimony encourages prayer and trust without promising the same temporal outcome in every illness, loss, or political emergency. Exodus likewise displays God making a path for Israel, but interpreters should not tell every believer that an apparent barrier will become a road and a grave for opponents.
Revelation 21:1 says the new heaven and earth have no more sea. The image may involve the literal sea, symbolic threat, separation, or echoes of Revelation’s own evil-from-the-sea imagery; its meaning is debated. Teachers may confidently proclaim the removal of evil and threat from the new creation through the vision’s wider testimony without declaring that a single “chaos boundary” interpretation is certain.
Anchor passage
Ps.107.23
Doctrinal connections
- Ps 107:23-30 — sailors at sea; the yam-storm stilled by YHWH's command
- Exod 14:21 — the Exodus yam-parting; the sea as road and grave
- Ps 89:9 — YHWH rules the raging yam; covenant-sovereignty
- Ps 46:2 — mountains into the heart of the seas; the maximum chaos scenario
- Isa 11:15 — the new-Exodus yam drying; eschatological sea-crossing
- H2719 Cherev — sword; cherev and yam as paired creation-boundary images
- G2281 Thalassa — sea; the NT heir of yam, stilled by Jesus in Mark 4
יָם can mean sea and can mark the west because the Mediterranean lies west of the land. יַם־סוּף refers to the Sea of Reeds, though the precise geography remains debated, and “the Great Sea” commonly identifies the Mediterranean. Comparisons with the Canaanite deity Yamm may illuminate the ancient environment, but a similar word does not prove that every Old Testament sea passage is a deliberate polemic.
Mark 4’s stilling of the sea evokes scriptural divine sovereignty over waters, yet identifying Jesus with the Lord depends on the Gospel’s narrative and Christology rather than the noun alone.
From Old to New Testament
The Synoptic accounts of Jesus stilling the storm portray authority over wind and sea and prompt the disciples’ question about his identity. These scenes resonate with Psalms such as 89 and 107, but the Gospels do not cite Psalm 107 as a direct enactment. Matthew 14’s walking on the sea likewise displays Jesus’ authority and may evoke Old Testament divine-water imagery; it is not simply an Exodus crossing reenacted.
Revelation 15 uses sea-of-glass and Song-of-Moses imagery for victorious worship, while Revelation 21:1 announces no more sea in the new creation. These visions are related within Revelation but should not be forced into a literal four-stage history of one Hebrew lexeme.
Lexical sourceCanonical parallelPassage contextPastoral applicationEditorial synthesis
Sources
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain