Seed
זֶ֫רַעStrong’s H2233zera (ze-ra)
Appears in 205 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Zera is the Hebrew word usually translated “offspring your”, “seed” and “offspring of”. It appears in 205 verses of the Old Testament.
“And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes;”
Meaning
- Seed, sowing, offspringa sowing · seed · semen virile · offspring, descendants, posterity, children · of moral quality · sowing time (by meton)
How it's translated
- offspring your 35
- seed 23
- offspring of 22
- offspring his 12
- offspring 11
- to offspring your 8
- and to offspring your 8
- seed your 7
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Genesis 48
- Isaiah 23
- Leviticus 22
- Jeremiah 18
- Psalms 17
- Deuteronomy 14
28 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Daniel 9:1In contextIn the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
- Zechariah 8:12In contextFor the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.
- Genesis 1:11And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
- Genesis 1:12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
- Genesis 1:29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
- Genesis 3:15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
All 205 verses, by book
- Genesis 48
- 1:111:121:293:154:257:38:229:912:713:1513:1615:315:515:1315:1816:1017:717:817:917:1017:1217:1919:3219:3421:1221:1322:1722:1824:724:6026:326:426:2428:428:1328:1432:1235:1238:838:946:646:747:1947:2347:2448:448:1148:19
- Leviticus 22
- 11:3711:3815:1615:1715:1815:3218:2018:2119:2020:220:320:421:1521:1721:2122:322:422:1326:526:1627:1627:30
- Joshua 1
- 24:3
- Ruth 1
- 4:12
- Proverbs 1
- 11:21
- Ecclesiastes 1
- 11:6
- Isaiah 23
- 1:45:106:1314:2017:1123:330:2341:843:544:345:1945:2548:1953:1054:355:1057:357:459:2161:965:965:2366:22
- Amos 1
- 9:13
- Haggai 1
- 2:19
- Zechariah 1
- 8:12
Hebrew dictionary
זֶ֫רַע zera · seed
: seed/sowing 1) seed, sowing, offspring 1a) a sowing 1b) seed 1c) semen virile 1d) offspring, descendants, posterity, children 1e) of moral quality 1e1) a practitioner of righteousness (fig.) 1f) sowing time (by meton)
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “seed” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
SEED, noun
- The substance, animal or vegetable, which nature prepares for the reproduction and conservation of the species.
- That from which any thing springs; first principle; original; as the seeds of virtue or vice.
- Principle of production.
- Progeny; offspring; children; descendants; as the seed of Abraham; the seed of David.
All definitions and other forms of “seed”
- Race; generation; birth.
SEED, verb intransitive
- To grow to maturity, so as to produce seed.
- To shed the seed
SEED, verb transitive
To sow; to sprinkle with seed which germinates and takes root.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.