Hebrew word · H209

אוֹנָן

'onan

Onan

Appears 8 times in 6 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man of the tribe of Judah living at the time of Egypt and Wilderness, first mentioned at Gen.38.4;

son of: Judah (H3063) and Bath-shua (H1323I) ;

brother of: Er (H6147) and Shelah (H7956);

half-brother of: Perez (H6557) and Zerah (H2226I)

§ Onan = "strong"

second son of Judah, slain by God for not fulfilling the levitical requirement to beget a child with the wife of a dead, childless brother

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

Where it appears

Genesis · 5

  1. Genesis 38:4 אוֹנָֽן׃ Onan

    Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan.

  2. Genesis 38:8 לְאוֹנָ֔ן to Onan

    Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.”

  3. Genesis 38:9 אוֹנָ֔ן Onan

    But Onan knew that the offspring would not belong to him; so whenever he would sleep with his brother’s wife, he would spill his seed on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother.

  4. Genesis 46:12 וְאוֹנָ֛ן וְאוֹנָן֙ and Onan

    The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.

    Here: The second son. He refused to father a child for his dead brother through Tamar, as custom required, and he died for it (Gen 38:8–10). The name is probably linked to ʾon, "vigor, strength."

Numbers · 2

  1. Numbers 26:19 וְאוֹנָ֑ן וְאוֹנָ֖ן and Onan

    The sons of Judah were Er and Onan, but they died in the land of Canaan.

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 2:3 וְאוֹנָן֙ and Onan

    The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, and Shelah. These three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanite. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death.

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