H2930 — טָמֵא (ṭâmêʼ)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H2930
Original: טָמֵא
Transliteration: ṭâmêʼ
Pronunciation: taw-may
Part of Speech: Verb (primitive root)
Root: Primitive root (cognates: H2931 ṭâmêʼ adjective "unclean"; H2932 ṭumʼâh noun "uncleanness")
Occurrences: 142 unique verses (194 tokens) across 13 books
First Occurrence: Gen 34:5 — "And Jacob heard that he had defiled (ṭimmêʼ) Dinah his daughter"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

A primitive root; to be foul, especially in a ceremonial or moral sense (contaminated): defile (self), pollute (self), be (make, make self, pronounce) unclean, utterly.

Verb Stem Distribution¶

Stem	Count	Typical Meaning
Qal	72	be/become unclean (stative — the person or thing enters an unclean state)
Piel	43	defile, make unclean, pronounce unclean (causative/declarative — agent defiles another, or priest declares unclean)
Niphal	16	be defiled (passive — the person was defiled by another's action)
Hithpael	12	defile oneself (reflexive — voluntary self-contamination)
Hotpael	1	be made unclean (rare passive-reflexive; Deut 24:4 only)
Pual	1	be defiled (intensive passive; Ezek 4:14 only)

Total verb tokens: 145 (morphological parser count; Strong's assigns 194 tokens across the broader lemma including some forms the parser categorizes as adjective/noun).

The stem distribution maps directly onto the word's semantic range: Qal = becoming unclean (involuntary state change), Piel = causing/declaring uncleanness (priestly or active defilement), Niphal = passive defilement (especially in adultery/idolatry contexts), Hithpael = deliberate self-defilement (especially in Ezekiel's warnings against idolatry).

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
unclean (various phrases: "shall be unclean," "be unclean," etc.)	~80	56%
defiled / defile / defile self	~40	28%
polluted / pollute	~12	8%
pronounce unclean	~8	6%
other (utterly, etc.)	~2	1%

Note: The KJV fragments this word across many multi-word phrases. The groupings above consolidate by core English rendering.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Leviticus	71	8.3
Ezekiel	28	2.2
Numbers	21	1.6
Haggai	1	2.6
Hosea	3	1.5
Micah	1	1.0
2 Kings	4	0.6
Jeremiah	4	0.3
Genesis	3	0.2
Deuteronomy	2	0.2
Psalms	2	0.1
2 Chronicles	1	0.1
Isaiah	1	0.1

Leviticus alone accounts for 50% of all occurrences (71/142 verses), with a density of 8.3 per 100 verses — overwhelmingly a ritual-law term. Ezekiel is the second major concentration (28 occurrences), extending the concept from ritual to moral/spiritual defilement of the land and sanctuary. The word is absent from the Pentateuch wisdom literature entirely and from the NT (where Greek equivalents carry the concept forward).

Semantic Categories¶

1. Ritual Impurity from Contact (Levitical Purity Laws)¶

The largest category — physical contact with unclean things produces temporary ceremonial uncleanness, typically lasting "until evening" and resolved by washing. - Lev 11:24 — "whosoever toucheth the carcase of them shall be unclean until the even" - Lev 11:31 — "whosoever doth touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean until the even" - Lev 15:5 — "whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the even" - Num 19:11 — "He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days"

2. Bodily Discharges and Skin Conditions¶

Specific physiological states that render a person unclean — menstruation, seminal emission, leprosy, childbirth. - Lev 12:2 — "If a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days" - Lev 15:16 — "if any man's seed of copulation go out from him... he shall be unclean until the even" - Lev 15:19 — "if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even" - Lev 13:44 — "He is a leprous man, he is unclean: the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean"

3. Priestly Declaration (Piel — "Pronounce Unclean")¶

The priest's authoritative declaration of uncleanness, especially in skin-disease diagnosis (Leviticus 13). - Lev 13:3 — "the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh... and the priest shall pronounce him unclean" - Lev 13:8 — "the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a leprosy" - Lev 13:11 — "the priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not shut him up: for he is unclean" - Lev 13:25 — "the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy"

4. Sexual Defilement (Moral Contamination)¶

Sexual sin — adultery, bestiality, and illicit relations — defiles persons and the land itself. - Gen 34:5 — "Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter" - Lev 18:20 — "thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her" - Num 5:13–14 — "and she be defiled... and the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled" - Ezek 18:6 — "neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife"

5. Idolatry and Pagan Worship (Hithpael — Self-Defilement)¶

Voluntary contamination through idolatrous worship — a dominant Ezekiel theme. - Lev 18:24 — "Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled" - Ezek 20:7 — "Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt" - Ezek 20:31 — "when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols" - Ezek 22:4 — "Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou hast shed; and hast defiled thyself in thine idols"

6. Defilement of Sacred Space and Land¶

The sanctuary, temple, and land of Israel can be defiled by sin, requiring divine judgment. - Lev 15:31 — "Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness; that they die not in their uncleanness, when they defile my tabernacle" - Num 19:13 — "whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man... and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD" - Jer 2:7 — "when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination" - Ezek 5:11 — "because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things"

7. Josiah's Deliberate Desecration (Piel — Active Defilement)¶

A unique usage: Josiah intentionally defiles pagan high places to render them permanently unusable for worship. - 2 Kings 23:8 — "he... defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense" - 2 Kings 23:10 — "he defiled Topheth... that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire" - 2 Kings 23:13 — "the high places that were before Jerusalem... did the king of Israel defile"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
עֶרֶב (ʻereb)	H6153	30x	"unclean until the evening" — duration formula for temporary impurity
נָגַע (nâgaʻ)	H5060	24x	"he that toucheth... shall be unclean" — contact as defilement trigger
מַיִם (mayim)	H4325	23x	"bathe in water, and be unclean" — water as purification alongside the state
אִישׁ (ʼîysh)	H376	21x	"if a man..." — casuistic law subject
בֶּגֶד (beged)	H899	20x	"wash his clothes, and be unclean" — garment washing as purification rite
כָּבַס (kâbaç)	H3526	18x	"shall wash his clothes" — laundering as ritual response to uncleanness
כֹּהֵן (kôhên)	H3548	16x	"the priest shall pronounce him unclean" — priestly diagnostic role
בַּיִת (bayith)	H1004	15x	"the house shall be unclean" / "defile the house" — spatial impurity
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisrâʼêl)	H3478	15x	"children of Israel" — covenant community subject to purity laws

Word Family / Cognates¶

H2931 טָמֵא (ṭâmêʼ) — adjective: "unclean, defiled" (78 unique verses). Describes the state that H2930 produces.
H2932 טֻמְאָה (ṭumʼâh) — noun: "uncleanness, impurity" (36 verses). The abstract quality of the state.

Synonyms¶

No synonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H2930.

Antonyms¶

H2891 טָהֵר (ṭâhêr) — returned by search_relationships.py as the direct cleansing opposite of ṭâmêʼ.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
טָמֵא (ṭâmêʼ)	H2931	"unclean," "defiled"	H2931 is the adjective (describes the state); H2930 is the verb (entering/causing the state)
חָנֵף (chânêph)	H2610	"polluted," "defiled"	chânêph = moral pollution, hypocrisy, profaneness; ṭâmêʼ = ritual/ceremonial impurity (though extended morally in prophets)
חָלַל (châlal)	H2490	"polluted"	châlal = profane, pierce, wound; defiles by violating sacred boundaries (Sabbath, covenant); broader semantic range
גָּאַל (gâʼal)	H1351	"polluted," "defiled"	gâʼal = stain, soil (physical or moral); used for blood-guilt pollution; unrelated to ritual impurity system

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[002001001062] Unclean — search_relationships.py places ṭâmêʼ in the core impurity field with neighbors such as H1350/H1351 גאל, H2610 חנף, H2931 טָמֵא, H2932 טֻמְאָה, and H2936 טנף.
[002001002005] Despise — the same relationship data also links defilement to loathing / rejected-polluted language, with neighbors such as H936/H937/H938 בוז, H939 בּוּזָה, H947 בוס, and H959 בזה.
[002001002031] Unwilling — a broader aversion field appears as well, grouping ṭâmêʼ with A69/H68 אֶבֶן, A849 אֶשְׁתַּדּוּר, H959/H960 בזה, and H1350 גאל.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
μιαίνω (miaínō) G3392	86	31.76	Primary equivalent — "to sully, taint, contaminate." Carries into NT at Titus 1:15, Heb 12:15, Jude 8
ἀκάθαρτος (akáthartos) G169	53	24.39	"Unclean" (adjective) — used for the stative Qal sense; NT: unclean spirits, unclean things
ἑσπέρα (hespéra) G2073	32	19.54	"Evening" — not a semantic equivalent; co-occurs because of the "unclean until evening" formula
πλύνω (plýnō) G4150	18	17.33	"Wash" — co-occurs in "wash clothes and be unclean" formula; not a semantic match
ἅπτομαι (háptomai) G680	24	16.83	"Touch" — co-occurs in "he that toucheth... shall be unclean"; not a semantic match
λούω (loúō) G3068	16	16.72	"Bathe" — co-occurs in washing instructions; not a semantic match
ἀκαθαρσία (akatharsía) G167	10	12.53	"Impurity" (noun) — renders the concept as abstract quality

True semantic equivalents: μιαίνω (86x) and ἀκάθαρτος (53x). The remaining high-PMI entries are collocation artifacts from the Levitical purity formulas.