What does עֵז (ʿēz) mean in the Bible?
The Hebrew noun ez names a goat, often a female goat, and in plural expressions can also identify material made from goat hair. Biblical households raise goats for milk, food, gifts, wages, and wealth.
Hebrew · H5795
עֵז
A she-goat (as strong), but masculine in plural (which also is used elliptically for goat's hair)
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עֵזH5795
Pronunciationʿēz
What does עֵז (ʿēz) mean in the Bible?
The Hebrew noun ez names a goat, often a female goat, and in plural expressions can also identify material made from goat hair. Biblical households raise goats for milk, food, gifts, wages, and wealth.
Reader summary
Full entry for עֵז (H5795) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H5795?
The BSB source-word alignment has 74 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (41), goats (5), a goat (4), of goats (3), and goat hair (2).
Where does עֵז (ʿēz) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 15:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Numbers (25), Leviticus (12), Genesis (11), Exodus (7).
What This Word Actually Means
The Hebrew noun ez names a goat, often a female goat, and in plural expressions can also identify material made from goat hair. Biblical households raise goats for milk, food, gifts, wages, and wealth. Goat hair becomes fabric for the tabernacle tent. Goats also appear in Israel's sacrificial instructions, where the particular offering, worshiper, and ritual setting determine their role.
Narratives may include a goat in hospitality, deception, payment, or ordinary livestock management, while poetry can compare a gathered army or flowing hair to a flock. The animal does not carry one moral meaning across these settings. It can be property, nourishment, textile source, offering, or image. Faithful interpretation should name the concrete use before moving toward theology.
Readers must not turn every goat into a symbol of guilt, wickedness, or rejection, nor overlook the labor and household dependence represented by living animals and their products.
How the Bible Uses It
Ez appears in household economy, food, textiles, offerings, gifts, narrative action, and comparison, showing an ordinary animal whose significance changes with use and literary setting.
- Exod.26.7
You are to make curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle—eleven curtains in all.
Goat hair is made into eleven curtains for the tent over the tabernacle, turning livestock material into skilled sacred craftsmanship.
- Lev.3.12
If one’s offering is a goat, he is to present it before the Lord.
A goat may be presented as a peace offering, with the surrounding instructions governing its handling before the Lord.
- 1Sam.25.2
Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very wealthy man with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.
Nabal's thousand goats form part of the large flock holdings that establish his wealth and the setting for shearing.
- Prov.27.27
You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed you—food for your household and nourishment for your maidservants.
Goats' milk is pictured as sufficient nourishment for the household and its maidservants within attentive livestock stewardship.
- 1Kgs.20.27
The Israelites also mobilized, gathered supplies, and marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped before them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.
Israel's two small camps are compared with flocks of goats, emphasizing their visible smallness beside the Aramean force.
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. . .41×Genesis 27:9, Genesis 37:31, Genesis 38:17, Genesis 38:20
goats5×Genesis 27:16, Genesis 30:33, Leviticus 1:10, 1 Samuel 25:2
a goat4×Genesis 15:9, Leviticus 17:3, Leviticus 22:27, Numbers 18:17
of goats3×1 Kings 20:27, Song Of Solomon 4:1, Song Of Solomon 6:5
and goat hair2×Exodus 25:4, Exodus 35:6
female goat2×Genesis 30:35, Numbers 15:27
goat2×Genesis 30:32, Numbers 15:11
of goat hair2×Exodus 26:7, Exodus 36:14
a young goat1×Judges 15:1
and goats1×Genesis 31:38
female goats1×Genesis 32:14
goat hair1×Exodus 35:23
is a goat1×Leviticus 3:12
made of goat’s hair1×Numbers 31:20
of goats’1×Proverbs 27:27
or a goat1×Leviticus 7:23
or goats1×Leviticus 22:19
or the goats1×Exodus 12:5
the goat1×Deuteronomy 14:4
the goat hair1×Exodus 35:26
with the goat [hair]1×1 Samuel 19:16
Show sample aligned rows
Genesis 15:9וְעֵ֥זtoa goatConjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singularGenesis 27:9עִזִּ֖יםto. . .Noun - feminine pluralGenesis 27:16הָֽעִזִּ֔יםtogoatsArticle | Noun - feminine pluralGenesis 30:32בָּעִזִּ֑יםtogoatPreposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine pluralGenesis 30:33בָּֽעִזִּ֗יםtogoatsPreposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine pluralGenesis 30:35הָֽעִזִּים֙tofemale goatArticle | Noun - feminine pluralGenesis 31:38וְעִזֶּ֖יךָtoand goatsConjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural construct | second person masculine singularGenesis 32:14עִזִּ֣יםtofemale goatsNoun - feminine pluralGenesis 37:31עִזִּ֔יםto. . .Noun - feminine pluralGenesis 38:17עִזִּ֖יםto. . .Noun - feminine plural
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowGenesis 15:9
Aligned rows74
Books represented13
Genesis11Exodus7Leviticus12Numbers25Deuteronomy1Judges41 Samuel41 Kings12 Chronicles2Proverbs1Song Of Solomon2Ezekiel2Daniel2
Source forms
עִזִּ֥ים21x‘iz·zîmLeviticus 23:19, Numbers 7:16, Numbers 7:22, Numbers 7:28
עִזִּ֖ים9x‘iz·zîmGenesis 27:9, Genesis 38:17, Leviticus 4:23, Leviticus 5:6
עִזִּ֔ים5x‘iz·zîmGenesis 37:31, Exodus 26:7, Exodus 36:14, Judges 15:1
הָֽעִזִּ֔ים4xhā·‘iz·zîmGenesis 27:16, 1 Samuel 19:13, Song Of Solomon 4:1, Song Of Solomon 6:5
הָעִזִּ֖ים4xhā·‘iz·zîmExodus 12:5, Leviticus 1:10, 1 Samuel 19:16, Daniel 8:8
עִזִּים֙3x‘iz·zîmLeviticus 4:28, Leviticus 9:3, Judges 6:19
וְעִזִּֽים׃2xwə·‘iz·zîmExodus 25:4, Exodus 35:6
עֵ֖ז2x‘êzLeviticus 3:12, Leviticus 17:3
Parsing patterns
Noun - feminine plural46xGenesis 27:9, Genesis 32:14, Genesis 37:31, Genesis 38:17
Article | Noun - feminine plural13xGenesis 27:16, Genesis 30:35, Genesis 38:20, Exodus 12:5
Noun - feminine singular5xLeviticus 3:12, Leviticus 17:3, Leviticus 22:27, Numbers 15:27
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural3xExodus 25:4, Exodus 35:6, Exodus 35:23
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine plural3xGenesis 30:32, Genesis 30:33, Numbers 15:11
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine singular2xGenesis 15:9, Leviticus 7:23
Conjunctive waw | Noun - feminine plural construct | second person masculine singular1xGenesis 31:38
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine plural1xLeviticus 22:19
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Teaching about household provision should not romanticize ancient servitude or overlook unequal access to food, labor, and property.
- Modern animal-care or economic applications should be offered modestly because these passages do not provide a complete agricultural policy.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that ez always represents sinners, outsiders, demonic power, or people rejected by God.
- Do not claim that the presence of a goat automatically makes a passage sacrificial, since many witnesses concern food, cloth, wealth, gifts, or comparison.
- Do not claim that biblical livestock wealth guarantees faithful stewardship or moral character.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. Feminine singular denotes strength; plural shifts masculine, also used elliptically for goat's hair material.
Source Gloss
a she-goat (as strong), but masculine in plural (which also is used elliptically for goat's hair)
Extended definitionSource: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
Feminine singular denotes strength; plural shifts masculine, also used elliptically for goat's hair material.
a she-goat (as strong), but masculine in plural (which also is used elliptically for goat's hair) BDB: she-goat Usage: (she) goat, kid.
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
acceptable burnt offering animal from the flock, prescribed for worship
sacrificial animal used in peace offering ritual with specific fat portions
livestock providing wool and sustenance as valuable economic resource
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 74 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
עֵז is built from this root:
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
Ez anchors biblical teaching in the material life of households. Goats provide milk, food, skins, hair, offspring, gifts, and measurable wealth. Their hair can be spun and formed into the tabernacle covering, joining animal husbandry, women's skilled work, generous contribution, and worship. A goat offered under Levitical instruction belongs to a defined covenant rite, not to a timeless symbolic claim about the species.
Nabal's herds make economic abundance visible, while Proverbs treats milk as household nourishment that reaches maidservants as well as owners. In 1 Kings, small goat flocks furnish a comparison for Israel's vulnerable appearance before a vast army. These uses resist a flattened symbolic dictionary. A creature can support life, enter sacrifice, display wealth, or sharpen an image without becoming morally good or evil in itself.
Responsible teaching should follow the passage's concrete relations: who cares for the animals, who benefits from their products, what God commands, and what the narrative does with the image.
Anchor passage
Prov.27.27
Doctrinal connections
- God's provision often reaches households through ordinary creatures, patient labor, seasonal care, and shared food.
- Sacred craftsmanship can receive materials from daily economic life and direct skilled human work toward worship.
- Covenant offerings must be interpreted through their own instructions rather than through a universal animal symbolism.
- Wealth measured in livestock creates responsibility because animals, workers, dependents, and neighbors are affected by stewardship.
- Biblical comparison draws on observable creaturely life without assigning a permanent moral identity to the animal.
- Household nourishment should be considered alongside the dignity and needs of servants and other dependent members.
Ez is a Hebrew noun for a goat, with singular and plural forms across livestock, offering, and food contexts. In several Exodus passages the plural functions elliptically for goat hair or goat-hair material. English context may specify goat, she-goat, kid, goats, or goat hair.
From Old to New Testament
The New Testament uses varied sheep-and-goat, sacrifice, stewardship, and provision images, but later metaphors do not retroactively assign one meaning to every Hebrew goat reference. Christ's fulfillment of sacrifice should be taught from explicit canonical connections rather than from the animal noun alone.