הָמוֹן

From the study of Ecclesiastes 5:10

Range of meaning

From a root meaning 'to murmur, roar, be in uproar': noise, tumult, a roaring crowd, a multitude. Hence a great quantity or abundance, especially of wealth (1 Chr 29:16, 'all this abundance' gathered for the temple; Ps 37:16, the 'abundance' of the wicked; Isa 60:5, 'the abundance of the sea').

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'abundance', BSB/NIV/ESV 'wealth', YLT 'stores'. 'Wealth' is accurate but flat. The Hebrew carries a sense of teeming, bustling mass: quantity for its own sake.

Used elsewhere in the period

Most often 'crowd' or 'army' (e.g., Judg 4:7, Sisera's 'multitude'). The sense 'abundance of wealth' appears mainly in late texts such as Chronicles, which fits the late Hebrew of Ecclesiastes.

From the study of Genesis 17:5

Range of meaning

From hāmâ, 'to roar, growl, murmur, be in uproar'. Meanings: noise, din, roar (the 'sound of the roar of rain', 1 Kgs 18:41); a noisy crowd or throng; a great army (Judg 4:7; often in Ezekiel); abundance or wealth (Ps 37:16; Eccl 5:10).

Against the English

BSB, KJV and NIV give 'many nations', which keeps the number but loses the picture. ESV, WEB and YLT have 'a multitude of nations', which is closer. None can show the sound play between hămôn and the name Abraham.

How it drifted

Not a drift so much as flattening. The Greek translation (LXX) rendered it simply as 'many' (pollōn), and Paul quotes that Greek (Rom 4:17). Its wording passed into the Latin and English tradition.

Used elsewhere in the period

BDB and HALOT s.v. הָמוֹן. Used of armies and crowds (Isa 13:4, 'the noise of a multitude on the mountains'), of the roar of waters and peoples (Isa 17:12), and of Egypt's vast population in Ezekiel 30–32.

From the study of Isaiah 5:13

Range of meaning

From hāmâ, 'to roar, murmur, be in commotion'. It means sound, roar, tumult, a noisy crowd or multitude, and by extension abundance or wealth (as in Psalm 37:16; Ecclesiastes 5:10).

Against the English

'Multitude' (KJV, ESV, NASB) and 'masses' (BSB) give the size of the crowd but lose the noise. That noise matters here, because the next verse pictures Zion's 'tumult' and 'revellers' going down into Sheol.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 5:14 uses hămônāh right alongside šəʾônāh ('her uproar') and ʿālēz ('the one exulting'). Isaiah 17:12 has 'the roar (hămôn) of many peoples'. Isaiah 29:5–8 uses it of the 'multitude' of nations that attack Zion.