A family , i.e. circle of relatives ; figuratively, a class (of persons), a species (of animals) or sort (of things); by extension a tribe or people
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H4940 names a kinship group and can range from a clan within Israel to the families or peoples of the earth. Genesis 10:32 uses the term while tracing the clans that spread into nations after the flood.
Reader summary
Full entry for מִשְׁפָּחָה (H4940) · Open the biblical lexicon
H4940 names a kinship group and can range from a clan within Israel to the families or peoples of the earth. Genesis 10:32 uses the term while tracing the clans that spread into nations after the flood.
The BSB source-word alignment has 303 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include clan (76), by their clans (29), clans (23), of the clans (15), of their clans (13).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 8:19. Its strongest book concentrations include Numbers (159), Joshua (47), 1 Chronicles (19), Genesis (12).
H4940 names a kinship group and can range from a clan within Israel to the families or peoples of the earth. Genesis 10:32 uses the term while tracing the clans that spread into nations after the flood. Genesis 12:3 then places all the families of the earth within God's promise to bless through Abram. Amos 3:2 addresses Israel as one family among all the families of the earth and joins covenant privilege to searching accountability.
Psalm 22:27 looks toward all the families of the nations bowing before the Lord. The noun can therefore identify real social belonging without making ancestry morally sufficient, spiritually saving, or politically supreme. Its pastoral value lies in holding belonging and responsibility together. Scripture recognizes family and clan bonds as places of memory, provision, identity, grief, and worship, yet it also places every family under God's rule and opens Abraham's blessing toward the nations.
Teachers should honor healthy kinship, protect people harmed inside families, and resist using bloodline, ethnicity, or institutional tradition to excuse injustice or exclude those whom God receives.
H4940 moves from genealogical clans and Israel's internal organization to the families of the earth under blessing, judgment, mourning, and worship. The word recognizes durable bonds of belonging while Scripture subjects every kinship group to God's justice and redemptive purpose.
All these are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their generations and nations. From these the nations of the earth spread out after the flood.
The table of nations concludes by naming Noah's clans according to generations and nations, locating family identity within humanity's post-flood dispersion rather than granting one clan absolute status.
I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”
God's promise to Abram reaches all the families of the earth, so the chosen household serves a blessing larger than itself and cannot turn election into self-protective privilege.
“Only you have I known from all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
The Lord names Israel from among all earth's families and makes their covenant knowledge the ground of accountability for iniquity, not immunity from judgment.
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord. All the families of the nations will bow down before Him.
The psalm's horizon widens until every family of the nations remembers, turns, and bows before the Lord, placing diverse peoples beneath His universal kingship.
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. Kinship unit expanding from household to tribal identity; organizes people by blood relation and social belonging
Kinship unit expanding from household to tribal identity; organizes people by blood relation and social belonging
a family, i.e. circle of relatives; figuratively, a class (of persons), a species (of animals) or sort (of things); by extension a tribe or people BDB: clan Usage: family, kind(-red).
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 304 lexical occurrence verses.
מִשְׁפָּחָה is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H4940 helps the church speak about belonging without worshiping belonging. In Genesis 10, clans are part of the ordered spread of peoples after the flood. They carry names, histories, places, and relationships that should not be treated as disposable. In Genesis 12, however, Abram's household is chosen for a purpose that reaches all the families of the earth.
Election bends outward toward blessing rather than inward toward superiority. Amos makes the corresponding warning explicit. Israel's distinctive covenant knowledge does not shelter injustice; it intensifies accountability. Psalm 22 finally places the families of the nations together before the Lord in worship. These movements keep family teaching from two opposite errors.
Scripture does not pretend that people are isolated individuals, but neither does it make bloodline the final measure of loyalty, truth, or safety. Families can nurture faith, transmit memory, shelter the vulnerable, and mourn together. They can also conceal abuse, enforce partiality, or demand silence to protect a name. Faithful ministry honors good kinship while insisting that every household and clan remains under God's justice.
It welcomes those estranged from unsafe relatives, refuses ethnic pride, and locates the church's shared life in God's promised blessing rather than in one culture's dominance.
Gen.12.3
H4940 is a feminine Hebrew noun commonly rendered family or clan. Its scale is contextual: genealogical lists may use it for descent groups inside a tribe, while poetic and promise texts can extend it to the families or peoples of the earth.
The New Testament announces Abraham's blessing among the nations and describes believers from many peoples gathered in Christ. That canonical movement does not erase natural families, but it denies ancestry the right to monopolize God's favor and calls the church to a shared life marked by truth, protection, hospitality, and reconciliation.