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Hebrew

To defile

טָמֵאStrong’s H2930

tame (ta-me)

Appears in 142 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Tame is the Hebrew word usually translated “unclean”, “it will be unclean” and “declare unclean”. It appears in 142 verses of the Old Testament.

“And Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah his daughter: now his sons were with his cattle in the field: and Jacob held his peace until they were come.”
Genesis 34:5 KJV
Meaning
  1. To be unclean, become unclean, become impure(Qal) to be or become unclean · (Niphal) · (Piel) · (Pual) to be defiled · (Hithpael) to be unclean · (Hothpael) to be defiled
How it's translated
  • and he will be unclean 20
  • he will be unclean 18
  • it will be unclean 14
  • and he will declare unclean 5
  • he will make himself unclean 5
  • she has made herself unclean 5
  • and he will declare unclean him 4
  • to become unclean 4

Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.

Where it's used most
  • Leviticus 71
  • Ezekiel 28
  • Numbers 21
  • 2 Kings 4
  • Jeremiah 4
  • Genesis 3

13 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 142 verses, by book
Deuteronomy 2
21:2324:4
2 Chronicles 1
36:14
Psalms 2
79:1106:39
Isaiah 1
30:22
Hosea 3
5:36:109:4
Micah 1
2:10
Haggai 1
2:13
Hebrew dictionary

טָמֵא tame · to defile

1) to be unclean, become unclean, become impure 1a) (Qal) to be or become unclean 1a1) sexually 1a2) religiously 1a3) ceremonially 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to defile oneself, be defiled 1b1a) sexually 1b1b) by idolatry 1b1c) ceremonially 1b2) to be regarded as unclean 1c) (Piel) 1c1) to defile 1c1a) sexually 1c1b) religiously 1c1c) ceremonially 1c2) to pronounce unclean, declare unclean (ceremonially) 1c3) to profane (God's name) 1d) (Pual) to be defiled 1e) (Hithpael) to be unclean 1f) (Hothpael) to be defiled

From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

How the English word “defile” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.

DEFILE, verb transitive

  1. To make unclean; to render foul or dirty; in a general sense.
  2. To make impure; to render turbid; as, the water or liquor is defiled.
  3. To soil or sully; to tarnish; as reputation, etc.“They shall defile thy brightness” Ezekiel 28:7
  4. To pollute; to make ceremonially unclean.“That which dieth of itself, he shall not eat, to defile himself therewith” Leviticus 22:8
All definitions and other forms of “defile”
  1. To corrupt chastity; to debauch; to violate; to tarnish the purity of character by lewdness.
  2. To taint, in a moral sense; to corrupt; to vitiate; to render impure with sin.“DEFILE not yourselves with the idols of Egypt” Ezekiel 20:7“He hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord” Numbers 19:20

DEFILE, verb intransitive

[Latin A thread.]

To march off in a line, or file by file; to file off.

    DEFILE, noun

    A narrow passage or way, in which troops may march only in a file, or with a narrow front; a long narrow pass, as between hills, etc.

      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.