H5971 — עַם (am)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H5971
Original: עַם
Transliteration: ʻam
Pronunciation: am
Part of Speech: Masculine noun
Root: From an unused root meaning "to associate" — a people as a congregated unit
Occurrences: 1,655 unique verses (1,962 tokens) in OT; 39 books
First Occurrence: Gen 11:6 — "And the LORD said, Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From an unused root; a people (as a congregated unit); specifically, a tribe (as those of Israel); hence (collectively) troops or attendants; figuratively, a flock:—folk, men, nation, people.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation Group	Approx. Verses	%
the people / The people / and the people	~704	42%
people (unarthrous)	~247	15%
of the people / of the / of	~174	11%
my people / O my people / My people / of my people	~172	10%
his people / of his people / from his people	~118	7%
thy people / of thy people / unto thy people	~97	6%
a people / A people	~34	2%
nations / the nations / among the nations	~12	1%
folk / men	~2	<1%
Other (prepositions, particles absorbed)	~95	6%

The overwhelming dominance of "people" (~98% of all renderings) reflects the tight semantic focus of this word. The possessive forms ("my people," "his people," "thy people") together account for ~23% and carry heavy covenantal weight.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Haggai	7	18.4
Micah	19	18.1
Joel	12	16.4
Esther	22	13.2
Zephaniah	7	13.2
Exodus	149	12.3
2 Samuel	85	12.2
2 Chronicles	98	11.9
Jeremiah	151	11.1
1 Samuel	89	11.0
Nehemiah	44	10.8
Habakkuk	6	10.7
Deuteronomy	96	10.0
Judges	61	9.9
Isaiah	125	9.7
Zechariah	19	9.0
Joshua	58	8.8
Hosea	17	8.6
1 Kings	67	8.2
Ezekiel	91	7.1
Lamentations	11	7.1
Ezra	19	6.8
2 Kings	47	6.5
Numbers	76	5.9
Amos	7	4.8
Psalms	112	4.6
Leviticus	39	4.5
Daniel	15	4.2
1 Chronicles	39	4.1
Malachi	2	3.6
Genesis	33	2.2
Proverbs	8	0.9
Ecclesiastes	2	0.9
Job	8	0.7
Ruth	9	—
Song of Songs	1	—

Highest density in the Minor Prophets (Haggai, Micah, Joel) and Exodus. Highest raw count in Jeremiah (151) and Exodus (149). The word saturates narrative history, covenant legislation, and prophetic address. Wisdom literature uses it sparingly — Proverbs and Job prefer individual address over corporate categories. Present in all 39 OT books except none — the word appears in every OT book.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Covenant People of God — "My People" Formula¶

The possessive ʻammî ("my people") is the primary covenant-identity marker. God names Israel as his own; prophets use it in accusation, comfort, and promise. - Exo 3:10 — "that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt" - Exo 5:1 — "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness" - 2 Chr 7:14 — "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray" - Isa 40:1 — "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" - Hos 1:9 — "ye [are] not my people, and I will not be your [God]" — covenant revocation - Hos 2:23 — "I will say to [them which were] not my people, Thou [art] my people" — covenant restoration

2. Elected / Holy People — Corporate Identity¶

Am designates Israel as a chosen collective, set apart from other peoples. - Deu 7:6 — "thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people" - Deu 14:2 — "the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations" - Deu 26:18 — "the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people" - Deu 32:9 — "For the LORD'S portion [is] his people; Jacob [is] the lot of his inheritance" - Isa 43:21 — "This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise"

3. The National Populace / Body Politic¶

Am as the collective citizenry acting together — going to war, making decisions, celebrating, or sinning corporately. - Jos 8:1 — "take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai" - Jdg 5:2 — "Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves" - Neh 4:6 — "the people had a mind to work" - 2 Ki 11:17 — "Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD'S people" - 2 Ki 11:20 — "all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet"

4. Foreign Peoples / Nations¶

Though am primarily refers to Israel, it also designates other peoples — Moabites, Ammonites, Canaanites, and generalized humanity. - Gen 11:6 — "Behold, the people [is] one, and they have all one language" — pre-Babel unified humanity - Num 21:23 — "Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel" - Deu 4:19 — "which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven" - Deu 32:8 — "When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance... he set the bounds of the people" - Zec 2:11 — "many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people"

5. "Gathered to His People" — Death Idiom¶

A formulaic expression for death in Genesis–Numbers, implying reunion with ancestors. - Gen 25:8 — "Abraham... died in a good old age... and was gathered to his people" - Gen 49:29 — "I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers" - Gen 49:33 — "Jacob... yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people" - Num 20:24 — "Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land" - Deu 32:50 — "die in the mount... and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy brother died"

6. "Cut Off from His People" — Covenant Exclusion¶

The penalty formula for violating sacred law: excision from the corporate body. - Gen 17:14 — "the uncircumcised man child... that soul shall be cut off from his people" - Lev 17:4 — "blood shall be imputed unto that man... that man shall be cut off from among his people" - Lev 17:10 — "I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people" - Lev 20:3 — "I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people"

7. People of the Land — Civic Body¶

"People of the land" (ʻam hāʾārets) functions as a sociopolitical term for the landed citizenry. - Gen 23:7 — "Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land" - Gen 23:12–13 — "Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land... in the audience of the people of the land" - Gen 42:6 — "Joseph [was] the governor over the land, and he [it was] that sold to all the people of the land" - 2 Ki 11:18 — "all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down"

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	536x (32%)	"the people of the LORD"; "my people, saith the LORD"
כֹּל (kol)	H3605	530x (32%)	"all the people"; totality of the corporate body
אָמַר (ʼamar)	H559	495x (30%)	Prophetic address: "say unto this people"
יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisraʼel)	H3478	251x (15%)	"people of Israel" / "my people Israel" — covenant name
אֶרֶץ (ʼerets)	H776	244x (15%)	"people of the land" — civic/territorial collective
אֱלֹהִים (ʼelohiym)	H430	228x (14%)	"people of God" — covenant identity marker
מֶלֶךְ (melek)	H4428	178x (11%)	"king and people" — governance pairing
אִישׁ (ʼiysh)	H376	176x (11%)	Individual within the collective; "a man of the people"
יוֹם (yowm)	H3117	159x (10%)	"in that day... the people" — prophetic time marker
שָׁמַע (shamaʻ)	H8085	140x (8%)	"Hear, O my people" — covenant summons

Word Family / Cognates¶

H5972 עַם (ʻam) — Aramaic corresponding form: "people" (used in Daniel and Ezra Aramaic sections)
H523 אֻמַּה (ʼummah) — "tribe, people" (from same root association; 3v)

Synonyms¶

No SDBH synonyms returned directly. Functionally related terms: - H1471 גּוֹי (gowy) — nation/people-group (511v); more ethnic/territorial than am; often non-Israelite - H3816 לְאֹם (lᵉʼom) — peoples/nations (35v); poetic/archaic; exclusively plural in use

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
גּוֹי (gowy)	H1471	"people," "nation"	gowy = ethnic/political nation (often foreign); am = relational/covenantal collective (often Israel)
לְאֹם (lᵉʼom)	H3816	"people," "nations"	lᵉʼom = archaic poetic term for peoples; am = prose and poetry both
אֻמָּה (ʼummah)	H524	"nation" (Aramaic)	ʼummah = Aramaic "nation" (political); am = kinship-based collective
λαός (laos)	G2992	"people"	NT Greek equivalent via LXX; laos inherits the covenant-people sense from am
ὄχλος (ochlos)	G3793	"people"	ochlos = crowd/throng (unstructured mass); am = organized corporate body

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[001002007004] Groups — Primary domain; neighbors include אָב (H1), אֲגַף (H102), אֹהֶל (H168)

Cross-Reference Network¶

Referenced in existing word studies: H5769-owlam, H1319-basar, G1484-ethnos, H1285-beriyth, H2377-chazon, WG-gentiles, H6664-tsedeq, H430-elohiym, H6942-qadash, H5768-owlel

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	LXX Co-occ	PMI Score	Notes
λαός (laos) G2992	1,400x	26.79	Dominant — ~85% of renderings; one-to-one covenant-people bridge
ἔθνος (ethnos) G1484	193x	11.13	When am = foreign peoples or "nations" generally

The LXX nearly always renders am as λαός (laos), creating a tight OT-to-NT bridge. In the NT, laos retains the covenant-people connotation inherited from am, distinguishing it from ἔθνος (ethnos, "nations/Gentiles") and ὄχλος (ochlos, "crowd"). This mapping is one of the strongest in the entire LXX (PMI 26.79, 1,400 co-occurrences).

Grammatical Notes: Constructio ad Sensum¶

Am is a grammatically masculine singular collective noun that frequently triggers constructio ad sensum — the verb or pronoun switches between singular (treating the people as a unit) and plural (treating the people as individuals). Compare: - Gen 11:6 — "the people [is] one" (singular: unified body) - Exo 32:9 — "I have seen this people, and, behold, it [is] a stiffnecked people" (singular: corporate entity) - Jdg 5:2 — "when the people willingly offered themselves" (plural: individual actors) - Neh 4:6 — "the people had a mind to work" (singular: collective will)

This oscillation is not inconsistent grammar but a feature of Hebrew collective nouns: the speaker can foreground either the group's unity or its constituent members.