The right hand or side (leg, eye) of a person or other object (as the stronger and more dexterous); locally, the south
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H3225 names the right hand or right side, can mark the south from an eastward orientation, and often carries contextual associations of position, skill, strength, support, authority, oath, judgment, or honor. The noun can identify a body part, a physical direction, a place beside someone, a ceremonial portion, a poetic image of power, or the south, so spatial reference and symbolic significance must not be treated.
Reader summary
Full entry for יָמִין (H3225) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3225 names the right hand or right side, can mark the south from an eastward orientation, and often carries contextual associations of position, skill, strength, support, authority, oath, judgment, or honor. The noun can identify a body part, a physical direction, a place beside someone, a ceremonial portion, a poetic image of power, or the south, so.
The BSB source-word alignment has 140 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include to the right (15), your right hand (12), his right hand (9), . . . (7), the right (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 13:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (42), Isaiah (9), Genesis (7), Judges (7).
H3225 names the right hand or right side, can mark the south from an eastward orientation, and often carries contextual associations of position, skill, strength, support, authority, oath, judgment, or honor. The noun can identify a body part, a physical direction, a place beside someone, a ceremonial portion, a poetic image of power, or the south, so spatial reference and symbolic significance must not be treated as one fixed code.
In Josh. 1. 7, joshua is commanded to observe the instruction given through Moses without turning from it to the right or the left. In Ps. 16. 8, the psalmist sets the Lord continually before him and says he will not be shaken because God is at his right hand. H3225 opens teaching on the hand that acts, the side where someone stands, and the biblical imagery of Gods strong and sustaining presence without making bodily difference a measure of human worth.
It corrects interpretations that turn right and left into universal moral labels, stigmatize left-handed or disabled people, or transfer poetic language about Gods power into unchecked authority for human leaders. H3225 can be ordinary direction or weighty imagery: Joshua must not turn from Gods instruction to the right or left, the psalmist trusts because the Lord is at his right hand, and Jonah closes with people unable to discern their right hand from their left.
A side can mark a path, a supporting presence, or limited understanding. None of these uses makes one kind of body morally superior, and divine right-hand language speaks analogically of Gods action rather than His anatomy. For H3225, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. H3225 does not teach that left-handedness or disability is inferior, make political right and left biblical categories, give people at a leaders right hand divine status, or reduce Gods presence and power to a physical body part.
H3225 appears across passages that develop embodied direction, divine strength, sustaining presence, royal honor, faithful paths, judgment, human limitation, disability, and compassionate wisdom. For H3225, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.
Joshua is commanded to observe the instruction given through Moses without turning from it to the right or the left.
I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
The psalmist sets the Lord continually before him and says he will not be shaken because God is at his right hand.
So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”
God confronts Jonah with compassion for Ninevehs many people who cannot discern their right hand from their left, along with many animals.
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. Right hand embodies strength, dexterity, and favor; directionally orients toward the south in spatial orientation
Right hand embodies strength, dexterity, and favor; directionally orients toward the south in spatial orientation
the right hand or side (leg, eye) of a person or other object (as the stronger and more dexterous); locally, the south BDB: right hand Usage: left-handed, right (hand, side), south.
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 1 selected witness from 141 lexical occurrence verses.
יָמִין is built from this root:
Represents divine strength and sustaining support.Isaiah 41:8-20
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H3225 can be ordinary direction or weighty imagery: Joshua must not turn from Gods instruction to the right or left, the psalmist trusts because the Lord is at his right hand, and Jonah closes with people unable to discern their right hand from their left. A side can mark a path, a supporting presence, or limited understanding. None of these uses makes one kind of body morally superior, and divine right-hand language speaks analogically of Gods action rather than His anatomy.
H3225 names the right hand or right side, can mark the south from an eastward orientation, and often carries contextual associations of position, skill, strength, support, authority, oath, judgment, or honor. The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Josh. 1. 7 shows that joshua is commanded to observe the instruction given through Moses without turning from it to the right or the left, while Ps.
16. 8 Shows that the psalmist sets the Lord continually before him and says he will not be shaken because God is at his right hand. Jonah. 4. 11 adds that god confronts Jonah with compassion for Ninevehs many people who cannot discern their right hand from their left, along with many animals. H3225 opens teaching on the hand that acts, the side where someone stands, and the biblical imagery of Gods strong and sustaining presence without making bodily difference a measure of human worth.
It corrects interpretations that turn right and left into universal moral labels, stigmatize left-handed or disabled people, or transfer poetic language about Gods power into unchecked authority for human leaders. A church teaching H3225 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support.
H3225 does not teach that left-handedness or disability is inferior, make political right and left biblical categories, give people at a leaders right hand divine status, or reduce Gods presence and power to a physical body part.
Josh.1.7
H3225 is a Hebrew noun for the right hand or side and, by directional convention, the south; construct phrases, prepositions, parallel terms, and the speakers orientation identify its concrete or figurative use.
The Old Testament speaks of Gods right hand as saving, sustaining, judging, and receiving praise while also using the noun for ordinary bodies and directions. The New Testament applies right-hand throne imagery to the risen Christ, whose authority serves, intercedes, and defeats evil rather than validating human domination.