Hebrew word · H761

אֲרַמִּי

'arami

Aramean

A member of the Aramean peoples, Aramaic-speaking groups of upper Mesopotamia and Syria (Aram-naharaim, Paddan-aram, later the kingdom of Aram-Damascus).

Appears 11 times in 10 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Someone from Aram

Group of pad.dan (פַּדָּן "Paddan" H6307)

§ Syrian or Aramean = "exalted"

a thing or a person from Syria or Aram

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 Deuteronomy 26:5

Range of meaning

A member of the Aramean peoples, Aramaic-speaking groups of upper Mesopotamia and Syria (Aram-naharaim, Paddan-aram, later the kingdom of Aram-Damascus).

Against the English

KJV and WEB 'Syrian' follow the Greek and Latin habit of calling Aram 'Syria'. Modern readers hear the modern country of Syria, or an Arab identity, neither of which is meant. 'Aramean' is accurate.

How it drifted

The Septuagint translated Aram as 'Syria', the Vulgate followed, and the KJV inherited 'Syrian'. The geography and ethnicity have since changed completely.

Used elsewhere in the period

Laban is 'the Aramean' (Gen 25:20; 31:20, 24). Jacob is sent to Paddan-aram for a wife (Gen 28:5) and lives there twenty years. Hos 12:12: 'Jacob fled to the field of Aram.' Abraham's family settled in Haran (Gen 11:31; 24:4, 10). In the period of the kings, the Arameans of Damascus were Israel's bitter rivals (1 Kgs 20; 2 Kgs 6–8).

From the study of Genesis 31:24

Range of meaning

A person of Aram, the peoples who lived in what is now northern Syria and southeastern Turkey, here the Haran region ("Paddan-aram," Gen 28:2). Aramaic is named after them.

Against the English

KJV and WEB say "the Syrian," following the Greek Syros. BSB has "the Aramean" and YLT "the Aramaean." "Syrian" now suggests the modern country of Syria, and Laban's Haran lies in present-day Turkey.

How it drifted

Greek and Latin writers used 'Syria' for the broader Aramean region, and the KJV followed them. The modern nation-state has narrowed what the word suggests.

Used elsewhere in the period

Laban is called "the Aramean" in Gen 25:20; 28:5; 31:20, 24. Deut 26:5 has "A wandering (or perishing) Aramean was my father," which most read as referring to Jacob, who lived among Arameans. Some scholars hear a pun between arammi and rimmah, 'to deceive' (Jacob to Laban in 29:25: "Why have you deceived me?"). The pun is suggestive, not certain.

Where it appears

Genesis · 5

  1. Genesis 25:20 הָֽאֲרַמִּ֔י הָאֲרַמִּ֖י the Aramean

    and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

  2. Genesis 28:5 הָֽאֲרַמִּ֔י the Aramean

    So Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, who was the mother of Jacob and Esau.

  3. Genesis 31:20 הָאֲרַמִּ֑י the Aramean

    Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was running away.

  4. Genesis 31:24 הָאֲרַמִּ֖י the Aramean

    But that night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and warned him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”

    Here: "The Aramean." The label stresses that Laban belongs to another people from the Haran region, even though he is family. In the next scene it sharpens the line between Jacob's household and Laban's.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 26:5 אֲרַמִּי֙ [was] an Aramean

    and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous.

    Here: Someone from Aram, the Aramaic-speaking lands of upper Mesopotamia and Syria. Abraham's family came from Haran in Aram, and Jacob's wives and twenty years of his life were there. The worshipper confesses that his ancestor was a foreigner, not a native of the land whose produce he now holds.

2 Kings · 4

  1. 2 Kings 5:20 הָֽאֲרַמִּי֙ the Aramean

    Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman, by not accepting what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”

    Here: His ethnic label. Aram (based at Damascus) was Israel's raiding enemy (v. 2). Gehazi names Naaman by his foreignness, not by his name alone.

  2. 2 Kings 8:28 אֲרַמִּ֖ים [the] Arameans

    Then Ahaziah went with Joram son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-gilead, and the Arameans wounded Joram.

  3. 2 Kings 8:29 אֲרַמִּים֙ [the] Arameans

    So King Joram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds that the Arameans had inflicted on him at Ramah when he fought against Hazael king of Aram. Then Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab, because Joram had been wounded.

  4. 2 Kings 9:15 אֲרַמִּ֔ים [the] Arameans

    but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he had suffered at the hands of the Arameans in the battle against Hazael their king.) So Jehu said, “If you commanders wish to make me king, then do not let anyone escape from the city to go and tell it in Jezreel.”

1 Chronicles · 1

  1. 1 Chronicles 7:14 הָֽאֲרַמִּיָּ֔ה <the> Aramean

    The descendants of Manasseh: Asriel through his Aramean concubine. She also gave birth to Machir the father of Gilead.

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