Midvash

הוּאhûwʼ

הוּ: see הוּא (Jeremiah 29:23)

Pronunciation: hoo · Hebrew/Aramaic (Old Testament) · H1931

Meanings

הוּא: he, she, used also (in both genders) for the neuter it

1. an emphatic he (she, it, they), sometimes equivalent to himself (herself, itself, themselves), or (especially with the article) that (those)

a. he, thou (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:20; Judges 14:3)

b. herself (Genesis 4:4; Genesis 4:26; Genesis 10:21)

c. verb, he (Exodus 4:14; Exodus 4:16; 1 Samuel 22:18)

d. himself, he (Genesis 13:1; Genesis 14:15; Genesis 19:30)

e. prefixed, that (Exodus 12:42; Ezekiel 3:8; Ezekiel 33:8)

2. It resumes the subject with emphasis

a. verb, he (Genesis 15:4; Genesis 3:12; Genesis 24:7)

b. noun, it (Genesis 2:14; Genesis 2:19; Genesis 9:18)

c. affirmative, Obs. (Genesis 9:3; Leviticus 11:39; Numbers 9:13)

3. Where, however, the pronoun follows the predicate, its position gives it the minimum of emphasis, and it expresses (or resumes) the subject as unobtrusively as possible

b. it is (Genesis 31:16; Genesis 31:43; Genesis 41:26)

c. negative (Genesis 7:2; Genesis 17:12; Numbers 17:5)

d. He, it was (Jeremiah 5:12; Isaiah 18:2; Isaiah 18:7)

4. It anticipates (as it seems) the subject namely

a. she, it (Song of Solomon 6:9; Leviticus 25:11; Ezekiel 11:15)

b. he (2 Samuel 7:28; Psalms 44:5; Isaiah 37:16)

5. As an emphatic predicate (Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 41:4; Isaiah 43:10)

6. In a neuter sense, that, it (of an action, occurrence, matter, etc.)

a. it, that (Joshua 2:21; Genesis 42:14; Exodus 16:23)

b. it was (2 Kings 18:36; Isaiah 36:21; 1 Samuel 20:33)

7. With the article (Genesis 2:12; Genesis 19:35; Genesis 21:22)

Same root

Where it appears

Appears 1,878 times in the Bible.

  • Genesis 2:11 The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found.
  • Genesis 2:12 The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there.
  • Genesis 2:13 The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush.
  • Genesis 2:14 The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.
  • Genesis 2:19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one.
  • Genesis 3:6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.
See every passage

Source: Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), public domain; markup by unfoldingWord, CC BY (github.com/unfoldingWord/Brown-Driver-Briggs-Enhanced).