Hebrew word · H590

אֳנִי

'oni

fleet

A whole body of ships, a fleet. It is rare: used in 1 Kings 9:26–27, 10:11, 22 and Isaiah 33:21. The ordinary word for one ship is ʾŏniyyâ.

Appears 7 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

fleet, ships

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 1 Kings 10:22

Range of meaning

A whole body of ships, a fleet. It is rare: used in 1 Kings 9:26–27, 10:11, 22 and Isaiah 33:21. The ordinary word for one ship is ʾŏniyyâ.

Against the English

KJV 'navy' now suggests a war fleet. Modern versions use 'fleet' or 'ships.' BSB's plural 'ships' is accurate in sense but hides that the Hebrew speaks of one unit.

How it drifted

In 1611 'navy' meant any fleet of ships, including merchant ships. It has since narrowed to a nation's armed forces at sea.

Used elsewhere in the period

Used for Solomon's Ezion-geber fleet (1 Kings 9:26) and Hiram's fleet that brought Ophir gold and almug wood (10:11). In Isaiah 33:21 it means a galley with oars.

Where it appears

1 Kings · 6

  1. 1 Kings 9:26 וָאֳנִ֡י and ship[s]

    King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.

  2. 1 Kings 9:27 בָּֽאֳנִי֙ in the ship[s]

    And Hiram sent his servants, sailors who knew the sea, to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s servants.

  3. 1 Kings 10:11 אֳנִ֣י [the] ship[s] of

    (The fleet of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir also brought from Ophir a great cargo of almug wood and precious stones.

  4. 1 Kings 10:22 אֳנִ֨י אֳנִ֣י אֳנִ֣י [the] ship[s] of

    For the king had the ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram’s fleet, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

    Here: A rare singular word meaning a whole body of ships, a 'fleet.' It is different from the usual word for one ship (ʾŏniyyâ). The verbs that go with it are feminine singular, so it is treated as one unit.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 33:21 אֳנִי־ a ship of

    But there the Majestic One, our LORD, will be for us a place of rivers and wide canals, where no galley with oars will row, and no majestic vessel will pass.

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