Hebrew word · H1903

הָגִין

haginah

suitable

Uncertain. It occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. BDB glosses it as 'suitable?' with a question mark, linking it to later Hebrew and Aramaic hagun, 'fitting, proper, appropriate'. Others suggest 'corresponding, matching' or 'straight, directly opposite'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 07, 2026

What it means

1) appropriate, suitable

2) (CLBL) directly ahead of

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Ezekiel 42:12

Range of meaning: Uncertain. It occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. BDB glosses it as 'suitable?' with a question mark, linking it to later Hebrew and Aramaic hagun, 'fitting, proper, appropriate'. Others suggest 'corresponding, matching' or 'straight, directly opposite'.
Against the English: KJV and YLT have 'directly (in the) front'. BSB has 'parallel to'. Other modern versions, as far as I recall, read 'corresponding wall'. All of these are educated guesses from context.
Used elsewhere in the period: There is no other biblical use. The likely cognate hagun ('fit, proper') is well attested in rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic (Jastrow), but those texts are centuries later. The ancient translations (Septuagint, Vulgate) do not render the Hebrew clearly, which suggests their translators either had a different text or did not understand it either.

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 1

Ezekiel 42:12 הֲגִינָ֔ה corresponding

And corresponding to the doors of the chambers that were facing south, there was a door in front of the walkway that was parallel to the wall extending eastward.

Here: This word appears nowhere else in the Bible. It is usually taken as 'corresponding' or 'matching', meaning the south wall matches the north one, or as 'set straight, directly'. The text may be damaged here.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.