A signal (literally or figuratively), as a flag , beacon , monument , omen , prodigy , evidence , etc.
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אוֹת is the Hebrew word for a sign — but the English word 'sign' carries far less weight than the original. In the OT, an אוֹת is not merely an indicator or symbol; it is a divinely appointed token that establishes a covenant, confirms a prophetic word, marks a person or people as belonging to God, or summons attention to an act of God in history.
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Full entry for אוֹת (H226) · Open the biblical lexicon
אוֹת is the Hebrew word for a sign — but the English word 'sign' carries far less weight than the original. In the OT, an אוֹת is not merely an indicator or symbol; it is a divinely appointed token that establishes a covenant, confirms a prophetic word, marks a person or people as belonging to God, or summons attention to an act of God in history.
The BSB source-word alignment has 79 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a sign (17), signs (11), the signs (8), will be a sign (7), sign (5).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:14. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (16), Deuteronomy (12), Isaiah (11), Psalms (8).
אוֹת is the Hebrew word for a sign — but the English word 'sign' carries far less weight than the original. In the OT, an אוֹת is not merely an indicator or symbol; it is a divinely appointed token that establishes a covenant, confirms a prophetic word, marks a person or people as belonging to God, or summons attention to an act of God in history. BDB identifies the range: flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence.
The local Hebrew artifact indexes about 79 OT occurrences, with selected uses moving across three major domains. First, covenant signs: God sets the rainbow as an אוֹת of the Noahic covenant (Gen 9:12-13), ordains circumcision as an אוֹת of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 17:11), and designates the Sabbath as an אוֹת between himself and Israel forever (Exod 31:13).
These signs are not mere symbols — they are covenant instruments, the tokens by which God binds his word to a visible form that his people can point to and say, 'This is what he promised.' Second, prophetic signs: Isaiah walks naked and barefoot for three years as an אוֹת against Egypt (Isa 20:3). Isaiah offers Ahaz an אוֹת of God's faithfulness and Ahaz refuses it, so God gives him one anyway: 'the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel' (Isa 7:14).
Prophetic אוֹת are God's way of making abstract words concrete, of attaching the invisible promise to a visible act or person. Third, miraculous signs: the signs performed in Egypt (Exod 7-12) are אוֹתוֹת that both demonstrate God's power over Pharaoh's gods and confirm the word God gave to Moses. For the preacher, אוֹת is the word that asks: what concrete, visible, touchable form has God given to his invisible promise?
The answer runs from the rainbow to the burning bush, from the plagues of Egypt to the Immanuel child, and from Ezekiel's sign-acts to the one the NT calls the greatest of all signs — the sign of Jonah, the death and resurrection of the Son of Man.
אוֹת is indexed at about 79 OT occurrences in the local Hebrew artifact. The selected witnesses show covenant tokens, prophetic signs, and mighty acts in Egypt and the wilderness that demonstrate divine power and confirm the message.
And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:
The rainbow established as an אוֹת of the Noahic covenant. Three features of this text establish a paradigm for covenant signs: (1) God sets the sign — it is not a human initiative; (2) the sign is between God and the covenant parties ('between me and you'); (3) the sign is attached to a specific promise ('the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh').
When God looks at the rainbow, he himself is reminded of the covenant (Gen 9:16). The אוֹת functions for both parties: it is the visible form of a mutual commitment.
“Tell the Israelites, ‘Surely you must keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.
The Sabbath designated as an אוֹת between God and Israel. Unlike the rainbow (cosmic, universal) and circumcision (bodily, individual), the Sabbath is a temporal sign — it is kept in time. The purpose of the sign is epistemological: 'that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.' The Sabbath אוֹת is the weekly reminder of the covenant relationship and of the identity of the one who makes Israel holy. This is one of the most repeated covenant signs: observed every seven days by the entire people.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.
The most theologically dense use of אוֹת in the prophets. God offers Ahaz a sign; Ahaz refuses; God gives one anyway. The Immanuel child is a sign of God's ongoing presence with the house of David — 'God with us' — in the face of the Syro-Ephraimite crisis. The NT's identification of this child with Jesus (Matt 1:23) is the claim that the אוֹת Ahaz refused to receive was given to the whole world: the sign of God's presence is a person, and that person is the one who is literally Immanuel.
And the Lord said, “If they refuse to believe you or heed the witness of the first sign, they may believe that of the second.
Moses is given signs to perform before Israel so that the people will believe that God has appeared to him (Exod 4:1-9). The logic of אוֹת here is epistemic: the sign generates or confirms belief. The two signs (staff becoming serpent; hand becoming leprous) are God's authentication of Moses's commission. The OT consistently pairs signs with belief: signs are given to produce or deepen trust in both the message and the messenger.
The NT carries this logic forward: Jesus's signs in John's Gospel (σημεῖα, the Greek equivalent of אוֹת) are given 'that you may believe' (John 20:31).
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. A visible marker or sign that testifies to divine power or covenant presence, ranging from physical monuments to miraculous acts.
A visible marker or sign that testifies to divine power or covenant presence, ranging from physical monuments to miraculous acts.
a signal (literally or figuratively), as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence, etc. BDB: sign Usage: mark, miracle, (en-) sign, token.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 79 lexical occurrence verses.
אוֹת is built from this root:
Isaiah’s behavior functions as visible prophecy of coming events.Isaiah 20:1-6
Confirms divine promise through visible demonstration.Isaiah 38:1-8
Represents assurance of God’s promise.Isaiah 38:21-22
The offered sign underscores God’s willingness to confirm his covenant promise.Isaiah 7:10-17
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
אוֹת is the word that asks: what form has God given to his promise? The OT often answers concretely: a rainbow in the sky, a mark in the flesh, a rest in time, a child born of a virgin, a walking prophet stripped of his garments. God does not leave his promises in the air as abstract commitments. He attaches them to something visible, tangible, and repeatable so that his people can point to it when faith wavers and say, 'This is what he said.'
That is the pastoral function of a sign. The rainbow is not a reminder for God's people only — Genesis says God himself looks at it and remembers his covenant (Gen 9:16). Signs work on both parties of the covenant relationship. The preacher who understands אוֹת as a covenant instrument rather than a mere miracle indicator has a word that illuminates the whole biblical story differently.
The plagues of Egypt are not just demonstrations of power — they are covenant confrontations, signs that the God of Israel is greater than the gods of Egypt. The Sabbath is not just a day of rest — it is a weekly אוֹת, God's signature on the time of his people. The Immanuel child is not just a promise of deliverance from the Syro-Ephraimite threat — he is the ultimate אוֹת, God himself made visible in a person.
The NT fulfillment is not a different category of sign; it is the completion of the OT sign vocabulary. Jesus performs σημεῖα (the LXX word for אוֹת) that are given 'that you may believe' (John 20:31). The cross and resurrection are, for Paul, the sign of Jonah — the אוֹת Jesus himself named as the sign of the Son of Man. God still attaches his invisible promise to a visible form.
Exod.31.13
אוֹת (plural אוֹתוֹת) derives from a root related to marking or designating. BDB identifies the semantic range: a signal (flag, beacon), a mark or token, a sign confirming a prophetic word, a covenant sign, a miraculous sign, and an omen. The word is grammatically related to the Aramaic אָת (Dan 6:8) and has cognates in Ugaritic and Phoenician. The LXX almost universally translates אוֹת with σημεῖον (sign), which allows the NT's σημεῖα to carry the full OT weight of covenant signs, prophetic confirmation, and authenticated messenger.
The pairing of אוֹתוֹת וּמֹפְתִים ('signs and wonders') is a fixed phrase in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and the prophets — the two nouns together describe the full range of God's authenticating acts: the sign (אוֹת) that confirms, and the wonder (מוֹפֵת) that astonishes.
The NT inherits the אוֹת vocabulary through the LXX's σημεῖον. Every major σημεῖον in the NT is doing what אוֹתוֹת did in the OT: attaching God's invisible work to a visible form that generates or confirms faith. John's Gospel explicitly names seven signs and then states their purpose: 'these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name' (John 20:31).
This is the standard OT purpose of a sign: belief in the messenger and the message. The Gospels' accounts of Jesus performing σημεῖα in response to demands for a sign (Matt 12:38-39, John 2:18) show that Jesus both fulfills and reconfigures the sign vocabulary. He refuses to perform signs on demand as authentication for skeptics, but freely gives signs to those already moving toward faith.
The 'sign of Jonah' — the resurrection — is the final and definitive אוֹת: not a confirming miracle among many but the event that is itself the content of the covenant promise. The rainbow was a sign of the promise not to destroy; the resurrection is a sign of the promise to raise.