Hebrew word · H3120

יָוָן

yavan

Greece

The Ionians: the Greeks of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. In wider use, Greeks in general. In Daniel, the Greek or Macedonian empire.

Appears 11 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 01, 2026

What it means

§ Javan = "Ionia" or "Greece"

1) Greece, Ionia, Ionians

2) location of descendants of Javan

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

Range of meaning: The Ionians: the Greeks of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. In wider use, Greeks in general. In Daniel, the Greek or Macedonian empire.
Against the English: "Greece" or "Grecia" can suggest a single country or a united state. In 480 BC the Greeks were separate, rival city-states. YLT keeps the Hebrew name, "Javan."
How it drifted: Near Eastern peoples knew the Greeks first through the Ionians on the coast, so "Ionian" became the word for all Greeks. "Greece" in English comes through Latin Graecia, and to modern ears it suggests a nation-state.
Used elsewhere in the period: Javan is a son of Japheth in the table of nations (Gen 10:2, 4). Isa 66:19; Ezek 27:13, 19 (traders); Joel 3:6 (Judeans sold to the "sons of the Yevanim"); Zech 9:13 ("your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Yavan"); Dan 8:21 ("the king of Yavan," Alexander); Dan 10:20 ("the prince of Yavan," its heavenly patron). Assyrian texts call them Yaman/Yawan, and Persian royal inscriptions (e.g. Behistun) list the Yauna among subject peoples.

Range of meaning: The Hebrew name, taken from 'Ionians', for the Greek peoples of the Aegean coast and islands. In Genesis 10:2, 4 Javan is a son of Japheth, ancestor of the coastland peoples. Hebrew writers used it for Greeks in general, traders and slave-dealers of the far west.
Against the English: KJV, BSB, WEB and the modern versions say 'Greece'. YLT keeps 'Javan'. 'Greece' is not wrong, but it calls up a single country, or classical Athens, rather than the scattered Greek-speaking peoples (or the Greek-led kingdoms after Alexander) that a Judean would have meant.
How it drifted: A modern reader thinks of the nation-state of Greece. The Septuagint already rendered the word 'Hellenes', and later Jewish readers linked it with the Greek-speaking Seleucid kingdom of the Maccabean era.
Used elsewhere in the period: Genesis 10:2–4; Isaiah 66:19; Ezekiel 27:13, 19; Joel 3:6 [4:6] (Greeks buying Judean captives as slaves); Daniel 8:21; 10:20; 11:2 ('the king of Javan' = Alexander and his successors). The Septuagint translates it 'Hellenes'.

Genesis · 2

Genesis 10:2 וְיָוָ֣ן and Javan

The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.

Here: The Ionians: Greeks of the Aegean coast and western Anatolia, Iaones in Homer and Yamanu/Yawanu in Assyrian records. Later Hebrew uses the word for Greece in general (Daniel 8:21, where 'the king of Greece' is literally 'the king of Javan').
Genesis 10:4 יָוָ֖ן Javan

And the sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites, and the Rodanites.

1 Chronicles · 2

1 Chronicles 1:5 וְיָוָ֣ן and Javan

The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
1 Chronicles 1:7 יָוָ֖ן Javan

And the sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites, and the Rodanites.

Isaiah · 1

Isaiah 66:19 וְיָוָ֑ן and Javan

I will establish a sign among them, and I will send survivors from among them to the nations—to Tarshish, Put, and the archers of Lud; to Tubal, Javan, and the islands far away who have not heard of My fame or seen My glory. So they will proclaim My glory among the nations.

Here: 'And Javan': the Ionian Greeks of the Aegean coast and islands, the far north-west from Judah's point of view.

Ezekiel · 2

Ezekiel 27:13 יָוָ֤ן Javan

Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your merchants. They exchanged slaves and bronze utensils for your merchandise.

Here: The Ionians: Greek-speaking communities on the Aegean coast of western Asia Minor (modern Turkey) and the nearby islands. It does not mean a Greek nation-state, which did not exist. To Ezekiel's hearers it named the far-western Greek traders at the edge of the known world.
Ezekiel 27:19 וְיָוָן֙ and Javan

and casks of wine from Izal for your wares. Wrought iron, cassia, and sweet cane were exchanged for your merchandise.

Daniel · 3

Daniel 8:21 יָוָ֑ן Greece

The shaggy goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes is the first king.
Daniel 10:20 יָוָ֖ן Greece

“Do you know why I have come to you?” he said. “I must return at once to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I have gone forth, behold, the prince of Greece will come.
Daniel 11:2 יָוָֽן׃ Greece

Now then, I will tell you the truth: Three more kings will arise in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. By the power of his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece.

Here: The Hebrew name for the Greeks, taken from "Ionians." In Daniel, the "kingdom of Yavan" is the Greek power that will overthrow Persia (8:21; 10:20).

Zechariah · 1

Zechariah 9:13 יָוָ֑ן O Greece

For I will bend Judah as My bow and fit it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece. I will make you like the sword of a mighty man.

Here: The Hebrew name for the Greek-speaking peoples of the Aegean, taken from 'Ionians'. To an Israelite this meant the far western sea peoples at the edge of the known world.

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