H2932 — טֻמְאָה (tumʼah)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H2932
Original: טֻמְאָה
Transliteration: ṭumʼâh
Pronunciation: toom-aw
Part of Speech: Feminine noun
Root: טָמֵא (ṭâmêʼ, H2930) — to be unclean, defile
Occurrences: 31 unique verses (36 tokens) in OT
First Occurrence: Lev 5:3 — "Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled withal, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty."
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From H2930 (ṭâmêʼ); religious impurity: filthiness, unclean(-ness).

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
uncleanness (all forms)	24	77%
filthiness (all forms)	6	19%
unclean	2	6%

Note: The 27 distinct KJV phrases collapse to three semantic renderings. "Uncleanness" dominates (with possessive/prepositional variants: "the uncleanness," "his uncleanness," "of her uncleanness," etc.). "Filthiness" appears exclusively in the prophets (Lam, Eze). "Unclean" appears twice as an adjectival use of the noun.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Leviticus	14	1.6
Ezekiel	7	0.5
Judges	2	0.3
Ezra	2	0.7
Numbers	2	0.2
2 Samuel	1	0.1
2 Chronicles	1	0.1
Lamentations	1	0.6
Zechariah	1	0.5

Leviticus accounts for 45% of all occurrences (14/31), establishing tumʼah as primarily a priestly/ritual concept. Ezekiel is the second center of gravity (23%), where the word shifts from ritual to moral/national impurity. The word is entirely absent from Deuteronomy, Psalms, Proverbs, and the major prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah — notable given that the root ṭâmêʼ (H2930/H2931) appears widely in those books.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Bodily Discharge Impurity (Levitical)¶

Lev 15:3 — "And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue, or his flesh be stopped from his issue, it is his uncleanness."
Lev 15:25 — "And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation; all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation"
Lev 15:26 — "Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation: and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation."
Lev 15:30 — "And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her before the LORD for the issue of her uncleanness."

2. Contact/Contagion Impurity¶

Lev 5:3 — "Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled withal"
Lev 7:20 — "But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people."
Lev 7:21 — "Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast"
Lev 22:3 — "Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, that goeth unto the holy things... having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off"
Lev 22:5 — "Or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing, whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of whom he may take uncleanness"

3. Sanctuary Pollution — Uncleanness Requiring Atonement¶

Lev 16:16 — "And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel"
Lev 16:19 — "And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel."
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 that is among them."
2 Chr 29:16 — "And the priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD, to cleanse it, and brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD"

4. Nazirite/Dietary Separation¶

Judg 13:7 — "Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, neither eat any unclean thing"
Judg 13:14 — "She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing"
Num 19:13 — "Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel: because the water of separation was not sprinkled upon him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is yet upon him."

5. National/Moral Uncleanness (Prophetic)¶

Ezek 36:17 — "Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman."
Ezek 36:25 — "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you."
Ezek 36:29 — "I will also save you from all your uncleannesses"
Ezek 39:24 — "According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them."
Lam 1:9 — "Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down wonderfully"

6. Land Pollution / Post-Exilic Separation¶

Ezra 6:21 — "And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land"
Ezra 9:11 — "The land, unto which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness of the people of the lands, with their abominations"
Zech 13:2 — "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land... and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land."

7. Lewdness / Persistent Moral Corruption¶

Ezek 24:11 — "Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot, and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed."
Ezek 24:13 — "In thy filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee."
Ezek 22:15 — "And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee."

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
כֹּל (kol)	H3605	14x (45%)	"all your/their uncleanness" — totality of impurity
נִדָּה (niddah)	H5079	6x (19%)	"uncleanness of her separation" — menstrual pairing
טָהֵר (taher)	H2891	5x (16%)	"cleanse from uncleanness" — antonymic action
טָמֵא (tame')	H2930	5x (16%)	"defile... uncleanness" — root verb + cognate noun
טָמֵא (tame')	H2931	4x (13%)	"unclean... uncleanness" — adjectival state + abstract noun
כָּרַת (karath)	H3772	5x (16%)	"cut off" — penalty formula for uncleanness
אָכַל (akal)	H398	5x (16%)	"eat" in context of uncleanness → exclusion from sacred food
בֵּן (ben)	H1121	7x (23%)	"children of Israel... uncleanness" — corporate impurity
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisra'el)	H3478	7x (23%)	"Israel" — national scope of impurity language
זוֹב (zowb)	H2101	4x (13%)	"issue" — bodily discharge co-occurrence

Word Family / Cognates¶

H2930 טָמֵא (ṭâmêʼ) — root verb: to be/become unclean, to defile (~160v)
H2931 טָמֵא (ṭâmêʼ) — adjective: unclean, defiled (88v) — H2931-tame.md

Synonyms¶

No synonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H2932.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H2932.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
טָמֵא (ṭâmêʼ)	H2931	"unclean"	H2931 = the adjectival state ("he is unclean"); H2932 = the abstract quality/condition ("his uncleanness")
עֶרְוָה (ʻervâh)	H6172	"unclean" (rare)	ervah = nakedness/indecency, physical exposure; tumʼah = ritual/moral impurity as a condition

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[002001001062] Unclean — search_relationships.py groups ṭumʼâh with the abstract impurity field alongside H1350/H1351 גאל, H2610 חנף, H2930 טמא, H2931 טָמֵא, and H2936 טנף.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Co-occurrences	PMI Score	Notes
ἀκαθαρσία (akatharsía) G167	26	28.97	Primary — near-exclusive rendering; the abstract noun pair
ἀκάθαρτος (akáthartos) G169	8	12.24	Adjective form used when LXX shifts POS
μιαίνω (miaínō) G3392	7	11.81	"To stain/defile" — verbal rendering in prophetic contexts
ῥύσις (rhýsis) G4511	4	12.58	"Flow/flux" — used for bodily-discharge contexts
καθαρίζω (katharízō) G2511	4	7.98	"Cleanse" — appears in "cleanse from uncleanness" constructions

The G167 (akatharsía) bridge is very strong (PMI 28.97), making it the primary pathway into NT usage. See TR-tumah-akatharsia.md.