Dominion , i.e. (abstractly) the estate ( rule ) or (concretely) the country ( realm )
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H4467, mamlāḵāh, is a Hebrew noun for a kingdom, realm, kingship, or governed political order. It may point to territory under a ruler, the people and institutions ordered within that rule, the royal administration itself, or the kingdom as a continuing corporate reality.
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Full entry for מַמְלָכָה (H4467) · Open the biblical lexicon
H4467, mamlāḵāh, is a Hebrew noun for a kingdom, realm, kingship, or governed political order. It may point to territory under a ruler, the people and institutions ordered within that rule, the royal administration itself, or the kingdom as a continuing corporate reality.
The BSB source-word alignment has 117 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the kingdoms (22), the kingdom (16), kingdoms (9), kingdom (7), or kingdom (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 10:10. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Chronicles (19), Jeremiah (17), Isaiah (14), 1 Kings (12).
H4467, mamlāḵāh, is a Hebrew noun for a kingdom, realm, kingship, or governed political order. It may point to territory under a ruler, the people and institutions ordered within that rule, the royal administration itself, or the kingdom as a continuing corporate reality. Genesis can locate the beginnings of a human kingdom in named cities. Kings and Chronicles can describe a kingdom transferred, divided, established, invaded, or compared with neighboring kingdoms. The prophets address kingdoms as accountable historical communities that God may uproot, rebuild, judge, or reunite. Context decides whether the emphasis is land, population, government, dynasty, or the whole realm held together under rule.
The word acquires unusual covenant weight in Exodus 19, where Israel is called to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Here mamlāḵāh is not merely a border or royal bureaucracy. It describes a people brought to God, ordered for holy service, and given a priestly vocation among the nations. Deuteronomy refuses to place Israel's king above instruction: when seated on the royal throne, he must copy and continually read the Law. The Davidic promise then speaks of a house and kingdom established before God, while Isaiah announces a ruler whose kingdom is sustained with justice and righteousness. Kingdom language therefore joins people, place, authority, worship, law, promise, and public righteousness without making any one feature the whole meaning.
H4467 also keeps earthly kingdoms under the Lord's ownership and judgment. David confesses that the kingdom belongs to God because everything in heaven and earth is His. Jeremiah's potter oracle can speak of a nation or kingdom being torn down or built up in response to God's declared purpose and the people's response. Ezekiel promises that divided Israel will become one nation and no longer two kingdoms under rival rule. Pastoral teaching should therefore resist reducing kingdom to private spirituality, a political slogan, territorial expansion, or institutional control. The noun does not authorize Christians to identify a modern state, party, empire, or church organization with God's reign. It helps readers see that biblical kingdom includes a ruled people and public order, yet its theological fulfillment depends on God's covenant promises and the just Davidic King rather than on the power of the word itself.
H4467 names kingdoms as real realms and political orders, then carries Israel's priestly vocation, the law-bound throne, the Davidic promise, God's ownership, prophetic judgment, and promised reunification.
His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
Nimrod's mamlāḵāh begins with named cities in Shinar. The term can describe a concrete human political realm without declaring that realm righteous.
And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”
At Sinai the redeemed people receive a corporate priestly vocation. Kingdom identity is ordered toward belonging to God, holiness, and service rather than national self-exaltation.
When he is seated on his royal throne, he must write for himself a copy of this instruction on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.
The throne does not place Israel's king above covenant instruction. Royal administration must remain a listening office shaped by a personally copied and regularly read Law.
Your house and kingdom will endure forever before Me, and your throne will be established forever.”
The Davidic covenant binds house, kingdom, and throne to God's establishing promise. The kingdom's endurance rests on divine faithfulness rather than dynastic self-preservation.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all.
David confesses God's ownership while Israel gives for the temple. No ruler, realm, or gift escapes the Lord's prior possession and exalted headship.
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.
The promised Davidic kingdom is established and sustained by justice and righteousness. Its endless peace depends on the Lord's zeal, not merely on human succession.
At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed.
The potter oracle treats kingdoms as morally accountable historical communities. Political scale does not protect a realm from God's announced judgment.
And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom,
The same prophetic unit can speak of building a kingdom, with the following verse preserving moral response and accountability. Judgment is not the only divine action toward public peoples.
I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. Then they will no longer be two nations and will never again be divided into two kingdoms.
The restoration promise answers historic division with one people and one king. Reunification is God's covenant work, not a generic endorsement of centralized power.
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. Kingdom denotes both abstract royal authority and concrete territorial realm under unified rule.
Kingdom denotes both abstract royal authority and concrete territorial realm under unified rule.
dominion, i.e. (abstractly) the estate (rule) or (concretely) the country (realm) BDB: kingdom Usage: kingdom, king's, reign, royal.
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 117 lexical occurrence verses.
מַמְלָכָה is built from this root:
Emphasizes the Lord’s rule over all political powers.Isaiah 37:8-20
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H4467 gives kingdom language social and covenantal substance. A kingdom has a ruler, but it also has people, places, laws, loyalties, institutions, worship, and a public history. Genesis shows that such realms can begin in cities and grow through human power. Exodus calls Israel a kingdom of priests, turning corporate identity toward holy service before God.
Deuteronomy places the king under written instruction. The Davidic covenant anchors kingdom hope in God's promise, while Isaiah defines the coming rule by justice, righteousness, and peace. Chronicles returns the kingdom itself to the Lord's ownership. Jeremiah and Ezekiel show that kingdoms may be judged, rebuilt, divided, and reunited under God's sovereign purpose.
This breadth protects preaching from two distortions. The kingdom of God cannot be shrunk to a private feeling with no people, obedience, worship, or public righteousness. It also cannot be seized as religious approval for territorial ambition, ethnic pride, partisan control, or church empire. The biblical hope is not that Christians make their preferred institution absolute.
It is that God fulfills His promise through the righteous Davidic King and forms a holy, serving people under His gracious rule.
Exod.19.6
H4467 is a feminine noun from the Hebrew royal-word family. It can be singular or plural and can emphasize a realm, political order, kingship, or the people under rule. The construct form often links a kingdom to a ruler, people, or territory, while the absolute form can name the realm itself. All 117 governed tokens belong to the exact H4467 root artifact and remain distinct from the two compound Hebrew-Aramaic phrase artifacts that also contain this Strong's ID.
The Old Testament locates kingdom hope in Israel's priestly vocation, the Davidic covenant, prophetic judgment, and the promise of just and peaceful rule. Jesus announces God's kingdom and fulfills the Davidic hope through His life, death, resurrection, exaltation, and promised return. First Peter and Revelation echo priestly-kingdom language for a redeemed people, but those echoes do not erase Israel's historical covenant setting or authorize the church to become a coercive state.
The canonical movement is toward Christ's reign and a serving holy people, not the sacralizing of present political power.