Entire (literally, figuratively or morally); also (as noun) integrity , truth
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תָּמִים (tamim) is a Hebrew adjective for what is whole, complete, sound, without defect, blameless, or marked by integrity. It can describe sacrificial animals, a complete period of time, an object in its whole state, a person's conduct or allegiance, and the completeness of God's work, way, or instruction.
Reader summary
Full entry for תָּמִים (H8549) · Open the biblical lexicon
תָּמִים (tamim) is a Hebrew adjective for what is whole, complete, sound, without defect, blameless, or marked by integrity. It can describe sacrificial animals, a complete period of time, an object in its whole state, a person's conduct or allegiance, and the completeness of God's work, way, or instruction.
The BSB source-word alignment has 91 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include unblemished (15), an unblemished (12), all unblemished (9), without blemish (8), blameless (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 6:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (22), Numbers (19), Ezekiel (13), Psalms (12).
תָּמִים (tamim) is a Hebrew adjective for what is whole, complete, sound, without defect, blameless, or marked by integrity. It can describe sacrificial animals, a complete period of time, an object in its whole state, a person's conduct or allegiance, and the completeness of God's work, way, or instruction. These uses share an idea of wholeness, but physical soundness, temporal completeness, moral integrity, and divine perfection remain distinct registers.
Noah is tamim in his generation and walks with God; Abraham is commanded to walk before God and be tamim; Israel is to be tamim with the Lord rather than imitate divination; Joshua calls the people to serve in integrity and truth. Psalms praises the completeness of God's way and instruction while describing people who walk with integrity. These texts do not make Noah or any other human sinless, nor does the adjective erase repentance, growth, limitation, or dependence.
Sacrificial animals described as without defect belong to a specific ritual register and must never be used to rank human bodies. Disability, chronic illness, infertility, scars, neurodivergence, age, appearance, or genetic difference does not make a person spiritually defective or unfit for community. Moral language of blamelessness must also avoid perfectionism, scrupulosity, coerced confession, surveillance, image management, and victim blaming. Integrity is truthful and accountable, not an impossible record or a polished public persona.
H8549 spans whole or complete objects and periods, animals without sacrificial defect, blameless or integrated conduct, wholehearted allegiance, and the complete character of God's work, way, and instruction.
Noah is called righteous and tamim in his generation and is said to walk with God, a narrative assessment that does not claim later sinlessness.
God commands Abram to walk before the divine presence and be tamim within covenant formation.
The Passover animal is to be a year-old male without defect, a physical and ritual qualification for that offering.
A house in a walled city becomes permanent to the buyer if not redeemed within a complete year, demonstrating a temporal sense.
Israel is to be wholehearted or blameless with the Lord rather than seeking the divinatory practices listed in the surrounding passage.
The Song of Moses calls the Rock's work complete and all God's ways just within a confession of divine faithfulness.
Vine wood was not useful for work even when whole, an ordinary material use within a prophetic analogy.
People hate the one who reproves in the gate and abhor the person who speaks with integrity, linking wholeness to truthful public justice.
The Lord's instruction is complete or sound and restores life, describing its reliable character rather than answering every later interpretive question by itself.
Joshua calls Israel to fear the Lord and serve in integrity and truth while putting away other gods.
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. Moral and ceremonial wholeness—absence of defect, whether physical blemish, ethical compromise, or spiritual corruption.
Moral and ceremonial wholeness—absence of defect, whether physical blemish, ethical compromise, or spiritual corruption.
entire (literally, figuratively or morally); also (as noun) integrity, truth BDB: complete Usage: without blemish, complete, full, perfect, sincerely (-ity), sound, without spot, undefiled, upright(-ly), whole.
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 91 lexical occurrence verses.
תָּמִים is built from this root:
The word describes moral integrity and sincerity before God.Proverbs 11:20
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H8549 offers a vision of wholeness that must be protected from both perfectionism and ableism. The corpus moves from complete time and whole material to sacrificial soundness, covenant allegiance, truthful conduct, and God's complete work and instruction. Job 1:1 uses a related but different adjective, and Isaiah 38:3 uses whole-heart language without H8549; neither should be cited as a direct occurrence.
Noah's description does not erase Genesis 9, and human blamelessness never becomes sinless perfection. Ritual requirements for animals do not describe the worth of human bodies. A disabled, chronically ill, scarred, infertile, aging, neurodivergent, or mentally ill person is not blemished before God. Communities pursuing integrity should value confession, repair, transparency, and growth without compulsive self-examination, coerced disclosure, invasive accountability, or public image control.
People experiencing religious scrupulosity or obsessive-compulsive symptoms may need qualified clinical care alongside gentle pastoral support.
Gen.6.9
H8549 is an adjective whose translation follows the noun or person described. Without defect fits many sacrificial animals; complete fits time or objects; blameless, upright, sincere, or whole can fit conduct and allegiance. Related Hebrew adjectives overlap, so English references to Job or a whole heart do not establish an H8549 occurrence.
New Testament language for blamelessness, maturity, completeness, and unblemished sacrifice uses several Greek terms. Christological and ecclesial connections should be made from those passages and their use of the Greek Scriptures, not by treating every H8549 occurrence as direct prediction.