נְעוּרִים

Genesis 8:21 מִנְּעֻרָ֑יו since youth<s> his

When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said in His heart, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from his youth. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.

Here: 'From his youth' means from early life, from the time a person is young. The phrase stresses how early and how deep-rooted the tendency is. It does not use the language of conception or birth.

Genesis 46:34 מִנְּעוּרֵ֣ינוּ since youth<s> our

you are to say, ‘Your servants have raised livestock ever since our youth—both we and our fathers.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.”

Leviticus 22:13 כִּנְעוּרֶ֔יהָ like youth<s> her

But if a priest’s daughter with no children becomes widowed or divorced and returns to her father’s house, she may share her father’s food as in her youth. But no outsider may share it.

Numbers 30:3 בִּנְעֻרֶֽיהָ׃ in youth<s> her

And if a woman in her father’s house during her youth makes a vow to the LORD or obligates herself by a pledge,

Numbers 30:16 בִּנְעֻרֶ֖יהָ in youth<s> her

These are the statutes that the LORD commanded Moses concerning the relationship between a man and his wife, and between a father and a young daughter still in his home.

1 Samuel 12:2 מִנְּעֻרַ֖י since youth<s> my

Now here is the king walking before you, and I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day.

Here: The word is plural in form, like English "my young days." It recalls the boy Samuel serving at Shiloh (2:11, 18; 3:1–21), known as a prophet "from Dan to Beersheba" (3:20).

1 Samuel 17:33 מִנְּעֻרָֽיו׃ ס since youth<s> his

But Saul replied, “You cannot go out against this Philistine to fight him. You are just a boy, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

2 Samuel 19:7 מִנְּעֻרֶ֖יךָ since youth<s> your

Now therefore get up! Go out and speak comfort to your servants, for I swear by the LORD that if you do not go out, not a man will remain with you tonight. This will be worse for you than all the adversity that has befallen you from your youth until now!”

1 Kings 18:12 מִנְּעֻרָֽי׃ since youth<s> my

I do not know where the Spirit of the LORD may carry you off when I leave you. Then when I go and tell Ahab and he does not find you, he will kill me. But I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth.

Here: "Since I was young." His loyalty is long-standing, not a sudden conversion now that the prophet has turned up.

Job 13:26 נְעוּרָֽי׃ youth<s> my

For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth.

Job 31:18 מִ֭נְּעוּרַי since youth<s> my

though from my youth I reared him as would a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow—

Psalm 25:7 נְעוּרַ֨י׀ youth<s> my

Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my rebellious acts; remember me according to Your loving devotion, because of Your goodness, O LORD.

Here: 'My youth', the years of being young (the Hebrew word is plural, as words for stages of life often are). It points back to wrongs done long ago, before the speaker was mature, which he fears are still on God's books.

Psalm 71:5 מִנְּעוּרָֽי׃ since youth<s> my

For You are my hope, O Lord GOD, my confidence from my youth.

Here: "From" plus "youth" (a plural word meaning the years of being young). It reaches back to the start of the psalmist's life, and this matters because the speaker is now old (vv. 9, 18). The relationship has lasted a whole lifetime.

Psalm 71:17 מִנְּעוּרָ֑י since youth<s> my

O God, You have taught me from my youth, and to this day I proclaim Your marvelous deeds.

Here: 'From my youth.' The Hebrew uses an abstract plural for the whole stretch of early life, from boyhood into young adulthood. It echoes v.5 ('my trust from my youth') and v.6 ('from the womb'), and it sets up the contrast with 'old age and gray hair' in v.18.

Psalm 103:5 נְעוּרָֽיְכִי׃ youth<s> your

who satisfies you with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Here: 'Your youth.' The plural form names a whole period of life, the years of vigour. The ending -ekhi is an older, poetic (or Aramaic-flavoured) form of 'your' (feminine), still addressed to the soul. This is the subject of 'is renewed': the strength of your young years comes back.

Psalm 127:4 הַנְּעוּרִֽים׃ <the> youth<s>

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are children born in one’s youth.

Psalm 129:1 מִנְּעוּרַ֑י since youth<s> my

A song of ascents. Many a time they have persecuted me from my youth—let Israel now declare—

Here: 'From my youth'. The speaker is Israel as a nation pictured as one person, so 'youth' points to the nation's earliest days: slavery in Egypt, the exodus and the wilderness (compare Hosea 2:15; 11:1; Jeremiah 2:2).

Psalm 129:2 מִנְּעוּרָ֑י since youth<s> my

many a time they have persecuted me from my youth, but they have not prevailed against me.

Here: 'From my youth', with the preposition min, 'from, since.' The speaker is Israel, pictured as one person (v. 1, 'let Israel now say'). Israel's 'youth' is its beginning as a people, usually connected with Egypt and the wilderness (Hos 11:1; Jer 2:2).

Psalm 144:12 בִּֽנְעוּרֵ֫יהֶ֥ם in youth<s> their

Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth, our daughters like corner pillars carved to adorn a palace.

Here: 'In their youth.' The hope is that the sons reach full, sturdy growth while still young: strong young men in their prime, not stunted ones.

Proverbs 2:17 נְעוּרֶ֑יהָ youth<s> her

who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God.

Proverbs 5:18 נְעוּרֶֽךָ׃ youth<s> your

May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

Here: A plural used for an abstract idea, meaning 'the time of your youth'. 'The wife of your youth' is the woman you married as a young man, your first and covenant wife. It does not mean 'your wife while she is still young'.

Isaiah 47:12 מִנְּעוּרָ֑יִךְ since youth<s> your

So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

Here: 'Since your youth.' Babylon's ritual and divination traditions really were ancient, going back more than a thousand years. The phrase grants that long history and then makes it the measure of how much wasted effort there has been.

Isaiah 47:15 מִנְּעוּרַ֗יִךְ since youth<s> your

This is what they are to you—those with whom you have labored and traded from youth—each one strays in his own direction; not one of them can save you.

Isaiah 54:6 נְעוּרִ֛ים youth<s>

For the LORD has called you back, like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, like the rejected wife of one’s youth,” says your God.

Here: "Wife of youth" means the wife a man married when they were both young: his first love and his partner over the years. It does not simply mean a wife who is young now. Compare Proverbs 5:18 and Malachi 2:14–15.

Jeremiah 2:2 נְעוּרַ֔יִךְ youth<s> your

“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

Here: 'Your youth': the early years of a life, here the people's beginnings at the Exodus. The phrase suggests a young woman newly married (compare 'the wife of your youth', Prov 5:18; Mal 2:14).

Jeremiah 3:4 נְעֻרַ֖י youth<s> my

Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth.

Here: The time of youth, specifically the time when a girl was betrothed and married. It points back to Jeremiah 2:2, 'the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride… in the wilderness': the Exodus period, when Israel's relationship with God began.

Jeremiah 3:24 מִנְּעוּרֵ֑ינוּ since youth<s> our

From our youth, that shameful god has consumed what our fathers have worked for—their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.

Jeremiah 3:25 מִנְּעוּרֵ֖ינוּ since youth<s> our

Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth even to this day we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

Here: From the nation's early days. Bitterly ironic: in 2:2 and 3:4 'youth' was the remembered honeymoon with God. Here even that early time is confessed as already unfaithful.

Jeremiah 22:21 מִנְּעוּרַ֔יִךְ since youth<s> your

I warned you when you were secure. You said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from youth, that you have not obeyed My voice.

Here: 'From your youth': since the early days of the nation, which Jeremiah elsewhere places in the wilderness and early settlement (Jer 2:2; 3:24–25; 32:30). The disobedience is as old as the relationship itself.

Jeremiah 31:19 נְעוּרָֽי׃ youth<s> my

After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

Here: 'My youth': the nation's early years. In Jeremiah this means Israel's long record of unfaithfulness 'from our youth' (Jeremiah 3:24–25; 22:21). The sins of long ago have finally come due.

Jeremiah 32:30 מִנְּעֻרֹֽתֵיהֶ֑ם since youth<s> their

For the children of Israel and of Judah have done nothing but evil in My sight from their youth; indeed, they have done nothing but provoke Me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the LORD.

Here: "From their youth." The nation is pictured as one person with a life story, and the bad pattern goes back to its earliest days.

Jeremiah 48:11 מִנְּעוּרָ֗יו since youth<s> its

Moab has been at ease from youth, settled like wine on its dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel or gone into exile. So his flavor has remained the same, and his aroma is unchanged.

Here: 'From his youth': since the nation began. Jeremiah uses the same phrase for Israel's whole history (Jer 2:2; 3:25; 22:21), so it sets Moab's unbroken story next to Israel's broken one.

Lamentations 3:27 בִּנְעוּרָֽיו׃ ס in youth<s> his

It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is still young.

Here: 'In his youth': the stretch of life from boyhood into young manhood, when an ox, or a person, is still being trained. The Hebrew word is plural, which is the normal way of naming a stage of life ('the youth-years'). The ס after the verse is a scribal paragraph mark, not part of the wording.

Ezekiel 4:14 מִנְּעוּרַ֣י since youth<s> my

“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

Here: 'Since I was a boy.' Ezekiel came from a priestly family (1:3), so he was raised under priestly food rules from childhood.

Ezekiel 16:22 נְעוּרָ֑יִךְ youth<s> your

And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood.

Ezekiel 16:43 נְעוּרַ֔יִךְ youth<s> your

Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will surely bring your deeds down upon your own head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed this lewdness on top of all your other abominations?

Here: 'Your youth'. In the allegory this means her infancy as an abandoned newborn (16:4–6) and her girlhood up to the marriage covenant (16:7–8): the time when she owed her life to Yahweh.

Ezekiel 16:60 נְעוּרָ֑יִךְ youth<s> your

But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

Here: In the allegory this is the time when the foundling grew up and the LORD married her (16:6–8). Historically it stands for Israel's beginnings in the Exodus and wilderness (cf. Jer 2:2). It repeats on purpose the phrase used twice to accuse her (16:22, 43).

Ezekiel 23:3 בִּנְעוּרֵיהֶ֖ן in youth<s> their

and they played in Egypt, prostituting themselves from their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their virgin bosoms caressed.

Here: 'In their youth': girlhood, the time before or just at marriage. Elsewhere in the Bible this is the time of first, faithful love (Jer 2:2). Ezekiel turns that around: the unfaithfulness was there from the start.

Ezekiel 23:8 בִנְעוּרֶ֔יהָ in youth<s> her

She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her.

Ezekiel 23:19 נְעוּרֶ֔יהָ youth<s> her

Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt

Ezekiel 23:21 נְעוּרָ֑יִךְ נְעוּרָֽיִךְ׃ ס youth<s> your

So you revisited the indecency of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your bosom and pressed your young breasts.

Hosea 2:15 נְעוּרֶ֔יהָ youth<s> her

There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

Here: Youth here means early marriage, the bride's first love ('the wife of your youth', Proverbs 5:18). It refers to the exodus and wilderness period, seen as Israel's honeymoon with God.

Joel 1:8 נְעוּרֶֽיהָ׃ youth<s> her

Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.

Zechariah 13:5 מִנְּעוּרָֽי׃ since youth<s> my

He will say, ‘I am not a prophet; I work the land, for I was purchased as a servant in my youth.’

Malachi 2:14 נְעוּרֶ֗יךָ youth<s> your

Yet you ask, “Why?” It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

Here: “Your youth.” She is the woman he married when both were young, the bride of his early life who has shared his whole adult history. The phrase carries tenderness and a long shared past (compare Proverbs 5:18; Isaiah 54:6).

Malachi 2:15 נְעוּרֶ֖יךָ youth<s> your

Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.

Here: 'Your youth', here with singular 'your'. 'The wife of your youth' is the woman a man married when both were young, his first wife and long-time partner (compare Proverbs 5:18). The switch from 'you' plural to 'you' singular makes the charge personal to each man.