A stream (including the sea; expectation the Nile, Euphrates, etc.); figuratively, prosperity
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H5104 names a river, stream, or strong current and can identify named waterways such as the Euphrates. Rivers water land, mark borders, carry people, host exile, and furnish poetic images, but the noun itself does not guarantee life or prosperity.
Reader summary
Full entry for נָהָר (H5104) · Open the biblical lexicon
H5104 names a river, stream, or strong current and can identify named waterways such as the Euphrates. Rivers water land, mark borders, carry people, host exile, and furnish poetic images, but the noun itself does not guarantee life or prosperity.
The BSB source-word alignment has 119 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include river (15), the Euphrates (13), the river (11), the rivers (9), of the Euphrates (7).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (21), Psalms (15), Ezekiel (13), Genesis (9).
H5104 names a river, stream, or strong current and can identify named waterways such as the Euphrates. Rivers water land, mark borders, carry people, host exile, and furnish poetic images, but the noun itself does not guarantee life or prosperity. In Gen. 2. 10, a river flows from Eden to water the garden before dividing into four headwaters, placing abundant water within God's ordered provision.
In Ezek. 1. 1, the exiled priest stands by the River Kebar when the heavens open and he sees visions of God, showing that displacement does not place him beyond divine revelation. In Jer. 2. 18, Judah is challenged for seeking the waters of the Nile and Euphrates through political dependence rather than returning to the Lord. H5104 opens teaching on created provision, God's presence in exile, and the danger of treating powerful nations as sources of security.
It does not make every river a spiritual portal, promise wealth wherever water imagery appears, or erase the actual geography and political history named in a passage.
H5104 covers ordinary and named rivers, territorial boundaries, currents, and poetic streams. River settings may support creation, empire, exile, danger, love, judgment, or restoration, while proper names and surrounding verbs identify the concrete referent.
Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters:
A river flows out of Eden to water the garden and then divides into four headwaters within the creation account's ordered geography.
In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.
Ezekiel is among the exiles by the River Kebar when the heavens open and he receives visions of God for his prophetic ministry.
Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
Jeremiah asks what Judah gains by drinking from the Nile or Euphrates, exposing political reliance on Egypt and Assyria instead of the Lord.
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. River as life-giving force; literal waterway extending figuratively to abundance, prosperity, and divine blessing flow.
River as life-giving force; literal waterway extending figuratively to abundance, prosperity, and divine blessing flow.
a stream (including the sea; expectation the Nile, Euphrates, etc.); figuratively, prosperity BDB: stream Usage: flood, river.
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 119 lexical occurrence verses.
The Euphrates river metaphor conveys the unstoppable power of Assyria under divine direction.Isaiah 8:1-8
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H5104 carries both the goodness of water and the limits of human dependence. Eden's river waters the garden as part of a world ordered and provided by God; life comes from the Creator, not from a river treated as divine. Ezekiel receives visions beside the Kebar while living among exiles, and the river of displacement becomes the location where God's glory confronts, commissions, and sustains him.
Jeremiah names the Nile and Euphrates as waters Judah seeks through foreign alliances. Those impressive rivers stand for real imperial powers, but drinking from them cannot cure covenant abandonment. A river can nourish a garden, define a border, carry danger, or locate an encounter with God. Its theological role comes from the passage, and none of these functions turns water into a guaranteed channel of wealth or revelation.
Responsible teaching honors ecology and geography, comforts displaced believers with God's reach, and subjects political alliances to covenant faithfulness. God's people receive created means gratefully without confusing the means with their ultimate source and Lord.
Ezek.1.1
H5104 is a Hebrew noun for a river, stream, or current. With titles such as the great river it can designate the Euphrates, while possessors, place names, and poetic parallelism identify other rivers or figurative uses.
New Testament and final-canonical river imagery draws on creation, temple, and restoration hopes, culminating in life flowing from God's throne. That trajectory magnifies divine provision while leaving each historical river, exile setting, and political warning intact.