H1121 — בֵּן (ben)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H1121
Original: בֵּן
Transliteration: bên
Pronunciation: bane
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: H1129 בָּנָה (banah) — to build; a son as "builder of the family name"
Occurrences: 3,652 unique verses (5,104 tokens) across 37 books
First Occurrence: Gen 3:16 — "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children (ben)"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H1129 (banah); a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc.): — afflicted, age, appointed to, arrow, bough, branch, breed, (young) bullock, (young) calf, came up in, child, colt, common, corn, daughter, firstborn, foal, fruitful, kid, lamb, man, mighty, nephew, old, people, rebel, robber, servant born, soldier, son, spark, steward, stranger, valiant, whelp, worthy, young (one), youth.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
son / Son (all variants incl. "the son", "his son", "my son")	~1,590	43.5%
children / the children (all variants)	~1,060	29.0%
sons / the sons (all variants)	~730	20.0%
old (age designation: ben X shanah)	122	3.3%
young / young one / young bullock	~50	1.4%
Other (men, child, bullock, valiant, stranger, etc.)	~100	2.8%

Note: "bene yisrael" (children of Israel) alone accounts for several hundred verses under the "children" and "sons" entries.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
1 Chronicles	430	45.6
Ezra	110	39.3
Numbers	437	33.9
Nehemiah	124	30.5
Judges	161	26.1
Joshua	159	24.2
2 Kings	174	24.2
2 Samuel	157	22.6
2 Chronicles	175	21.3
Genesis	306	20.0
1 Kings	161	19.7
Exodus	208	17.1
Haggai	6	15.8
Leviticus	134	15.6
1 Samuel	114	14.1
Ezekiel	165	13.0
Joel	9	12.3
Jeremiah	156	11.4
Deuteronomy	103	10.7
Hosea	19	9.6
Malachi	5	9.1
Proverbs	55	6.0
Isaiah	72	5.6
Psalms	95	3.9
Job	33	3.1
Daniel	9	2.5
(Rth, Sng, Lam, Zec, etc.)	varies	varies

Pattern: Densest in genealogical/census books (Chronicles, Numbers, Ezra). Much lower density in wisdom/poetry. Ezekiel's density is driven by the "son of man" address formula (90+ uses). Absent or near-absent from some wisdom/prophecy books where abstract themes dominate.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Biological Son / Literal Offspring¶

The primary sense — a male child in direct filial relationship to his father.

Gen 21:3 — "Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac."
Prov 17:6 — "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers."
Mal 1:6 — "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour?"
Mal 3:17 — "I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."

2. Patronymic — Genealogical Identifier¶

"X son of Y" is the standard Hebrew personal-identification formula. The vast majority of occurrences in narrative books use ben this way.

Josh 1:1 — "Joshua the son of Nun" (patronymic identification)
Zech 1:1 — "Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo" (genealogical chain)
1 Chron 1:5 — "The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog..." (genealogical table)

3. Sons/Children of Israel — National and Ethnic Identity¶

The construct bene X forms collective ethnic, tribal, or priestly designations. "Bene yisrael" is the single most frequent multi-word phrase using ben in the OT.

Exod 1:7 — "the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly..."
Lev 1:5 — "the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood..."
Deut 14:1 — "Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves..."
Isa 1:2 — "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me."

4. Age Expression — "X Years Old"¶

Ben + number + shanah ("year") forms the Hebrew idiom for age. Accounts for 122 KJV "old" renderings. Nearly every narrative age reference uses this construction.

Num 1:3 — "From twenty years old (lit. ben esrim shanah) and upward, all that are able to go forth to war"
Gen 5:32 — "Noah was five hundred years old (ben-chameish meot shanah)"
The Levitical service ages (30 years old, 50 years old) in Numbers all use this idiom.

5. Class Membership / Character Designation¶

Ben + a noun denotes membership in a category or a characteristic quality — an idiom for profession, spiritual type, or nature. Collocation H376 אִישׁ (ish) 324x confirms "sons of men" pattern.

1 Kgs 20:35 — "a certain man of the sons of the prophets" (guild membership)
Job 1:6 — "the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD" (celestial class)
Psalm 8:4 — "the son of man (ben-adam), that thou visitest him" — a human being
Ezek 2:1 — "Son of man, stand upon thy feet" — prophetic address: Ezekiel as human representative before God (90+ uses)

6. Young Animal / Animal Offspring¶

Ben applied to animals denotes young or newborn offspring.

Lev 1:5 — "young bullock" (ben-bakar, lit. "son of the herd")
Num 6:12 — "a lamb of the first year" (ben-shanah, lit. "son of a year")
Also: lion whelps (ben-ari), donkey colt (ben-atonah, Zech 9:9), nestlings

7. Divine Sonship — Covenantal and Messianic¶

God designates Israel, the Davidic king, and the promised Messiah with the language of sonship. This is the theological apex of ben's semantic range.

Exod 4:22 — "Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn"
2 Sam 7:14 — "I will be his father, and he shall be my son" (Davidic covenant)
Psalm 2:7 — "the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee"
Isa 9:6 — "unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrael)	H3478	879x (24%)	"bene yisrael" — children/sons of Israel
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	750x (21%)	covenant relationship; "sons of the LORD your God"
אָמַר (amar)	H559	730x (20%)	narrative: "said unto [the] son"; address formulas
מֶלֶךְ (melek)	H4428	400x (11%)	"son of the king" — dynastic succession
אָב (ab)	H1	309x (8%)	father-son dyad; core kinship unit
נָתַן (nathan)	H5414	306x (8%)	"bear/give a son" — birth announcements; inheritance
שָׁנֶה (shaneh)	H8141	272x (7%)	age formula: "son of X years"
בַּיִת (bayith)	H1004	297x (8%)	"house/household" — dynastic continuity
אֱלֹהִים (Elohim)	H430	284x (8%)	"sons of God" — divine assembly, Israel's filial status
אֶרֶץ (erets)	H776	286x (8%)	territorial inheritance — land promised to the sons

Word Family / Cognates¶

H1129 בָּנָה (banah) — root verb: to build; a son "builds" the family name
H1323 בַּת (bath) — daughter; the feminine counterpart to ben
H1247 בַּר (bar) — Aramaic equivalent; same meaning (see below)

Synonyms¶

No discrete synonym list was returned by search_relationships.py for this very broad kinship term.

Antonyms¶

No antonym list was returned by search_relationships.py for this term.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
בֵּן (ben) Aramaic	H1123	"son", "child", "children"	Aramaic form of the same word; used in Daniel and Ezra Aramaic sections
בַּר (bar)	H1247	"the son", "My son", "Son"	Aramaic "son"; appears in Ps 2:12, Prov 31:2, Dan 3:25
בַּר (bar)	H1248	"Son" (as title)	Borrowed as honorific for "heir apparent"; very rare
יֶלֶד (yeled)	H3206	"children", "son"	Stresses birth/infancy/youth; cannot form group-identity constructs like bene-yisrael
עוֹלֵל (olel)	H5768	"children", "her children"	Specifically sucklings/infants; far narrower range than ben
נַעַר (naʻar)	H5288	"children"	Youth/servant — emphasizes age and social role, not parentage

Semantic Domains¶

Because ben is semantically broad and extremely frequent, search_relationships.py mapped it into several large lexical domains:

[001002007012] Relatives — other words: אַב (A2), אָב (H1), אַח (A252), אָח (H251), אָח (H253), אָח (H254).
[001002007] People — other words: אָדָם (H120), אָדָם (H121), אהב (H157), אַהַב (H158), אוּל (H193), אַיִל (H352).
[001002007004] Groups — other words: אָב (H1), אֲגַף (H102), אֹהֶל (H168), אֹהֶל (H169), אִי (H336), אִי (H337).
[002001001056] Stage — other words: אֵב (A4), אֵב (H3), אָבִיב (H24), אֹון (H202), אֹון (H203), אֹון (H204).
[002002002010] Time — other words: אָחֹור (H268), אַמָּה (A521), אַמָּה (H520), אַמָּה (H522), אֶמֶשׁ (H570), אנשׁ (H605).
[002003003011] Engage — other words: אָב (H1), אחד (H258), אחז (H270), אנס (A598), אנס (H597), אפק (H662).
[003001017] Titles — other words: אָב (H1), אַבִּיר (H47), אֶבֶן (A69), אֶבֶן (H68), אֲדֹנָי (H136), אָח (H251).
[003001007] Names of People — other words: אֲבַגְתָא (H5), אֲבִי (H21), אֲבִי עַלְבֹון (H45), אֲבִיאֵל (H22), אֲבִיאָסָף (H23), אֲבִיגַיִל (H26).
[003001003] Names of Constructions — other words: אֵל (A412), אֵל (H410), אֵל (H411), אֵל (H415), אֵל (H416), אֶפְרַיִם (H669).
[003001008] Names of Landforms — other words: אֶבֶן בֹּהַן בֶּן רְאוּבֵן (H68), אֶבֶן בֹּהַן בֶּן רְאוּבֵן (H932), אֶבֶן הָאֶזֶל (H237), אֶבֶן הָאֶזֶל (H68), אֶבֶן הַזֹּחֶלֶת (H2120), אֶבֶן הַזֹּחֶלֶת (H68).

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
υἱός (huios) G5207	3,096x	2.55	Dominant rendering; carries the same breadth from literal son to divine sonship
τέκνον (teknon) G5043	123x	2.40	Emphasizes birth/childhood rather than legal or covenant sonship
δῆμος (demos) G1218	87x	2.14	Contextual: "people" in collective national passages
φυλή (phyle) G5443	157x	1.63	"tribe" — when ben appears in tribal grouping contexts

The primary LXX bridge is G5207 (huios) — the word that carries the full theological weight of "Son of God", "Son of Man", and Messianic Sonship in the NT.