H6754 — צֶלֶם (tselem)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H6754
Original: צֶלֶם
Transliteration: tselem
Pronunciation: tseh
Part of Speech: masculine noun (n-m)
Root: from an unused root meaning "to shade"
Occurrences: 15 unique verses (18 tokens) across 8 books
First Occurrence: Gen 1:26 — "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, i.e. (figuratively) illusion or resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol: "image," "vain shew."

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
image / images	13	86.7%
pictures	1	6.7%
vain shew	1	6.7%

The exact tool output breaks the dominant rendering into article-marked phrases ("in our image," "his images," "their image," etc.), but the corpus is overwhelmingly image-language with one abstract use in Psalm 39:6.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Amos	1	0.7
Genesis	4	0.3
1 Samuel	2	0.2
Ezekiel	3	0.2
Numbers	1	0.1
2 Kings	1	0.1
2 Chronicles	1	0.1
Psalms	2	0.1

Pattern: Genesis establishes the "image of God" / lineage sense. Historical and prophetic books use the word mainly for condemned cult-images or representative figures. Psalms preserves the abstract "phantom / appearance" edge of the lexicon.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Humanity in the image of God, and human likeness passed through descent¶

Gen 1:26 — "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"
Gen 1:27 — "So God created man in his [own] image"
Gen 5:3 — Adam begat a son "after his image"
Gen 9:6 — man is protected because he was made "in the image of God"

2. Cult-images to be destroyed, rejected, or judged¶

Num 33:52 — Israel must "destroy all their pictures"
2 Kgs 11:18 — Baal's house and "his images" are broken down
2 Chr 23:17 — the parallel reform scene again breaks "his images in pieces"
Eze 7:20 — Judah made "the images of their abominations"
Amo 5:26 — Israel carried "Chiun your images"

3. Crafted representative figures of persons or objects¶

1 Sam 6:5 — Philistines make "images of your emerods, and images of your mice"
1 Sam 6:11 — the guilt-offering includes gold mice and "the images of their emerods"
Eze 16:17 — Jerusalem makes "images of men"
Eze 23:14 — "images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion"

4. A fleeting or unreal appearance¶

Ps 39:6 — "Surely every man walketh in a vain shew"
Ps 73:20 — "thou shalt despise their image"

These Psalm uses are the clearest places where the lexicon's "phantom / illusion" sense rises to the surface instead of a physical statue or representational object.

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
עָשָׂה (asah)	H6213	6x	making man in God's image, making cult images, making substitute figures
אֱלֹהִים (elohim)	H430	5x	"image of God" and other God-focused contexts
אָדָם (adam)	H120	3x	humanity defined or protected in relation to the image
דְּמוּת (demuth)	H1823	2x	paired likeness-language in Gen 1:26 and 5:3
בַּעַל (Baal)	H1168	2x	Baal's images destroyed in reform narratives
זָהָב (zahab)	H2091	2x	images fashioned with or alongside gold objects
טְחֹר (techor)	H2914	2x	"images of emerods" in the Philistine guilt-offering

Function-word collocations from the script output (על, כל, אשר) were omitted here so the table stays focused on lexical patterns.

Word Family / Cognates¶

H6755 צֶלֶם (tselem, Aramaic) — the corresponding Aramaic entry; "form, image" in Daniel 2-3
H1823 דְּמוּת (demuth) — "likeness"; paired directly with H6754 in Genesis 1:26 and 5:3

Synonyms / Nearby Terms¶

H4541 מַסֵּכָה (massekah) — cast / molten image
H4906 מַשְׂכִּית (maskith) — figured image or pictured form
H1823 דְּמוּת (demuth) — likeness / resemblance
H4196 מִזְבֵּחַ (mizbeach) — altar; returned by search_relationships.py as a cult-object neighbor rather than a strict synonym

Antonyms¶

No antonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H6754.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
מַצֵּבָה (matstsebah)	H4676	images / the images	an erected pillar or standing image; emphasizes the fixed upright object
תְּרָפִים (teraphim)	H8655	the images	a household / shrine-idol class rather than the broader "image" category
חַמָּן (chamman)	H2553	the images	specifically a sun-pillar or sun-image term
אֱלִיל (elil)	H457	images	a contemptuous "worthless idol" term rather than a more neutral representational word

Semantic Domains¶

search_relationships.py returns four relevant domain groupings:

[001002008001010] Images — with words such as H434/H457 אֱלִיל, H842 אֲשֵׁרָה, H1544 גִּלּוּל, H2914 טְחֹרִים, and H4541 מַסֵּכָה
[001002008001006] Cult Objects — neighboring shrine/object vocabulary including H2553 חַמָּן
[002004002003] Compare — likeness / resemblance vocabulary including H1823 דְּמוּת and H1825 דִּמְיֹון
[002004002015] Vision — apparition / seen-form vocabulary, fitting the lexicon's "phantom" edge and the Psalms' abstract uses

The first two domains fit the idol/object uses most directly. The latter two account for the resemblance / appearance side of the word.

LXX Mapping¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
εἰκών (eikon)	G1504	10	8.98	Primary lexical bridge; the clear Greek equivalent across the H6754 corpus
τίθημι (tithemi)	G5087	3	3.38	Contextual co-occurrence from image-setting / placement contexts, not a competing equivalent
ἄνθρωπος (anthropos)	G444	4	2.65	Contextual in Genesis / Psalm uses involving "man"
ποιέω (poieo)	G4160	6	1.96	Contextual in "make" passages

Because the corpus is small, the lower-ranked rows are best read as contextual LXX neighbors. G1504 εἰκών is the only dominant lexical equivalent.