Properly, a mortal (and thus differing from the more dignified 120 ); hence, a man in general (singly or collectively)
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The Hebrew noun ’ĕnôš names a human being with particular attention to creaturely weakness, mortality, and dependence. It can speak of an individual person or of humanity more broadly, but its force is never permission to despise human life.
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Full entry for אֱנוֹשׁ (H582) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun ’ĕnôš names a human being with particular attention to creaturely weakness, mortality, and dependence. It can speak of an individual person or of humanity more broadly, but its force is never permission to despise human life.
The BSB source-word alignment has 543 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include men (121), the men (97), . . . (49), and his men (26), of the men (18).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 6:4. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Samuel (67), Genesis (50), Jeremiah (48), Judges (44).
The Hebrew noun ’ĕnôš names a human being with particular attention to creaturely weakness, mortality, and dependence. It can speak of an individual person or of humanity more broadly, but its force is never permission to despise human life. In Scripture, the word often places human limits beside God’s enduring power, knowledge, justice, or compassion. Job uses it while asking whether a mortal can be purer than the Maker.
The Psalms use it to marvel that God remembers and cares for fragile people, and also to warn nations that they remain merely human. Isaiah sets mortal fear beside the comfort of the Creator. The word therefore helps readers hold humility and dignity together: people are dust-bound and unable to rival God, yet they are seen, corrected, remembered, and comforted by him.
Across wisdom, prayer, and prophecy, ’ĕnôš exposes human limitation before God while also highlighting God’s attentive care for people whose lives are brief and vulnerable.
‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
Eliphaz frames the mortal person against the Maker, emphasizing creaturely limits rather than establishing that every claim in his speech is correct.
What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him?
The psalmist’s wonder joins human smallness to God’s deliberate remembrance and care, preventing frailty from becoming a claim of worthlessness.
Lay terror upon them, O Lord; let the nations know they are but men. Selah
The prayer asks God to make the nations recognize their human limits, correcting violent self-exaltation before the divine Judge.
As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field;
Human days are compared with grass and field flowers, while the surrounding psalm locates hope in the Lord’s enduring covenant love.
“I, even I, am He who comforts you. Why should you be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who withers like grass?
God’s people are called away from fear of mortals who fade like grass and toward confidence in the Lord who comforts them.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Emphasizes human frailty and mortality, distinguishing ordinary people from the more dignified term for man.
Emphasizes human frailty and mortality, distinguishing ordinary people from the more dignified term for man.
properly, a mortal (and thus differing from the more dignified 120); hence, a man in general (singly or collectively) BDB: man Usage: another, × (blood-) thirsty, certain, chap(-man); divers, fellow, × in the flower of their age, husband, (certain, mortal) man, people, person, servant, some (× of them), stranger, those, their trade. It is often unexpressed in the English versions, especially when used in apposition with another word. Compare 376.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 42 lexical occurrence verses.
אֱנוֹשׁ is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
’Ĕnôš teaches that a human being is neither divine nor disposable. Mortality limits every person and nation: no one can outlast God, judge more purely than the Maker, or secure life by power. Yet the same canon repeatedly places fragile humanity within God’s regard. He remembers, cares, corrects, judges oppressors, and comforts those tempted to fear other mortals.
The preaching movement should therefore run in both directions. Human limitation dismantles arrogance, and God’s attention dismantles despair. Psalm 8 does not erase frailty when it celebrates God’s care, and Psalm 103 does not erase covenant mercy when it compares human days to grass. The word serves faithful humility when it keeps Creator and creature distinct while directing vulnerable people toward the Lord’s enduring character.
Ps.8.4
The noun can refer to an individual mortal or to humanity collectively. Its contextual emphasis commonly concerns weakness and mortality, but the surrounding sentence determines whether that emphasis supports lament, humility, warning, wonder, or comfort.
The New Testament likewise describes human life as brief and dependent while insisting that God sees and values people. James 4:14 compares life to a mist, and Jesus redirects fear from those who can only kill the body toward reverent trust in God, who knows even the hairs of his people’s heads in Matthew 10:28-31.