# H7065 - qana **Strong's:** [H7065](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h7065/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** kaw-naw' **Part of speech:** verb (Piel "to be jealous / zealous / move someone to jealousy"; Hiphil "to provoke to jealousy") **OT occurrences:** ~34 (verb); see [H7068 - qinah](/codex/h7068-qinah/) for the cognate noun (~43) and *qanna* / *qannoʾ* (H7067, adjective applied to God, ~6 occurrences, always of God) **LXX equivalent:** ζηλόω (*zēloō*), direct correspondent (verbal form of *zēlos*); see [G2205 - zelos](/codex/g2205-zelos/) **Cognate forms:** *qinʾah* (H7068, the feminine noun, "jealousy / zeal"); *qanna* (H7067, the adjectival divine-attribute form, *"jealous"*, used only of God: *El qanna*); *qannoʾ* (variant spelling); *qinno* (3p-masc-sg perfect, *"he was jealous"*, Phinehas in [Num 25:11](/codex/numbers-25-11/)) **English descendants:** *zealot* (via Greek *zēlōtēs*) and *jealous* (via Latin *zelosus*) both descend from this root family; the English split between *zeal* (positive) and *jealousy* (typically negative) is not present in the Hebrew ## Semantic range The Hebrew *qanaʾ* covers a single underlying concept, **passionate, possessive intensity for what is rightly one's own**, with moral valence determined not by the lexeme itself but by **who is jealous, for what, on what basis**. 1. **To be jealous (covenantal-protective)**, positive: the right-bearer's passionate response to violation of an exclusive relationship, God's response to Israel's idolatry; a husband's response to a wife's infidelity; a covenant-mediator's response to covenant-betrayal 2. **To be zealous (positive zeal-for-a-holy-cause)**, the *qana*-passion deployed *for* something (God, the covenant, righteousness, justice), Phinehas's spear-act at [Num 25](/codex/numbers-25/); Elijah's mountain-confrontation at [1 Kgs 19](/codex/1-kings-19/); Jehu's purge of Baal-worship at [2 Kgs 10](/codex/2-kings-10/) 3. **To be envious (negative, sinful in humans)**, the wrongful claim on what isn't one's own; the *vice* sense, Rachel's envy of Leah ([Gen 30:1](/codex/genesis-30-1/)); Joseph's brothers' envy ([Gen 37:11](/codex/genesis-37-11/)); Saul's envy of David (in the broader *qinʾah* cluster); [Prov 14:30](/codex/proverbs-14-30/), *"qinʾah is the rottenness of the bones"* 4. **To provoke to jealousy** (Hiphil causative), the action of *making someone qana*, [Deut 32:16](/codex/deuteronomy-32-16/), [21](/codex/deuteronomy-32-21/), Israel provoking YHWH to jealousy with strange gods; Paul's deployment at [Rom 10:19](/codex/romans-10-19/), [11](/codex/romans-10-11/):11, 14, the *parazēloō* strategy of Gentile inclusion as YHWH's *jealousy-strategy* against Israel The lexeme is *valence-neutral*; moral valence comes from the object and the rightfulness of the claim. The same word names Phinehas's righteous spear-act and the brothers' destructive envy. This is essential for the apologetic deployment treated below. ## Theological force, the divine self-naming as *qanna* ### *El qanna*, the most-loaded divine-attribute word YHWH explicitly *self-names* via the *qana* root in two of the most significant divine self-disclosures in the Hebrew Bible: - **[Exodus 20.5](/codex/exodus-20-5/)**, the Decalogue: *"I, the LORD your God, am a *qanna* God"*, said in the immediate context of the prohibition on idolatry (the Second Commandment) - **[Exodus 34.14](/codex/exodus-34-14/)** (stub built 2026-05-31), the covenant-renewal after the Golden Calf: *"you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name (*shem*) is *Qanna*, is a *qanna* God"* The [Ex 34:14](/codex/exodus-34-14/) self-naming is structurally maximal: God identifies *Qanna* as one of His **names** (*shem*), not merely an emotion He has but a defining attribute of His identity. The covenantal-protective zeal is *who He is*, not just *what He does* in a given moment. The deployment is **always covenantal-marital**, every biblical use of God's *qana / qanna / qinʾah* sits inside the marriage-covenant frame in which YHWH is the husband and Israel is the bride. The Mosaic covenant-renewal repetitions: [Deuteronomy 4.24](/codex/deuteronomy-4-24/), *"the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God"*; [Deut 5:9](/codex/deuteronomy-5-9/) (the Decalogue repetition); [Deut 6:15](/codex/deuteronomy-6-15/); [Josh 24:19](/codex/joshua-24-19/), *"you cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God"*. The deployment is exclusively *covenantal-protective-zeal* when applied to God; there are *no* biblical occurrences of God's *qana* in a sense that would map onto English insecure-envious-jealousy. ### Phinehas, human *qana* approved by God The most striking OT case of *human* covenantal *qana* approved and rewarded by God is **[Numbers 25.11-13](/codex/numbers-25-11-13/)** (stub built 2026-05-31). Israel falls into sexual-and-cultic syncretism with Moab at Baal-Peor. **Phinehas, son of Eleazar the priest**, takes a spear and kills the offending Israelite man (Zimri) and the Moabite woman (Cozbi) in flagrante. God's response: > *"Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that **he was jealous (*qinno*) with my jealousy (*qinʾati*)** among them, so that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace; and it shall be unto him, and to his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, **because he was jealous for his God**, and made atonement for the children of Israel."* ([Num 25:11-13](/codex/numbers-25-11-13/), ASV) Phinehas's *qana* is *with God's qana*. He participates in the divine attribute. God explicitly approves the human-zeal-in-covenant-defense and rewards it with a perpetual priestly covenant. The verb *qinno* (perfect 3p-masc-sg, "he was jealous") is repeated three times in three verses for emphasis. This is the OT exemplar of *holy human zeal*, the same *qana* God shows for His covenant deployed by a human covenant-mediator on God's behalf. Paul's appeal to Phinehas-style zeal in [Gal 4:18](/codex/galatians-4-18/) and the NT broader *zēloō* deployment carries the pattern forward. ### Elijah, the prophet's covenant-zeal A second canonical case of *human* covenantal *qana* is **Elijah** at Mount Horeb. After the Mount Carmel confrontation, Elijah flees to Horeb (Sinai); God meets him in the wind-earthquake-fire-still-small-voice theophany; Elijah says (twice, [1 Kgs 19:10](/codex/1-kings-19-10/), [14](/codex/1-kings-19-14/)): - **[1 Kings 19.14](/codex/1-kings-19-14/)** (stub built 2026-05-31), *"I have been very jealous (*qano qineti*) for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant"* The doubled construction *qano qineti* ("zealously have I been zealous") is the intensified form of *qana*-deployment, Elijah's covenant-zeal stretched to its breaking point. The pattern: a covenant-mediator stands *in for* God's *qana* against the broader people's covenant-breaking; the mediator is exhausted, dispirited, near despair; God commissions and restores. The figure carries Christological weight ([Mal 4:5-6](/codex/malachi-4-5-6/); [Matt 17:10-13](/codex/matthew-17-10-13/); [Luke 1:17](/codex/luke-1-17/); the Mount-of-Transfiguration appearance). The same pattern: **Jehu** at [2 Kgs 10:16](/codex/2-kings-10-16/), *"come with me, and see my zeal (*qinʾati*) for the LORD"*, deployed in the purge of Baal-worship, a mixed case (the Jehu-purge is later prophetically critiqued, [Hosea 1:4](/codex/hosea-1-4/)); but the *qana*-vocabulary is the same. ### The prophetic indictment, Israel provoking *qana* The *qana* root drives a major prophetic-indictment strand: Israel's idolatry as *covenant-adultery* that *provokes* YHWH's *qana*-response: - **[Deuteronomy 32:16](/codex/deuteronomy-32-16/), [21](/codex/deuteronomy-32-21/)** (Song of Moses), *"they have moved him to jealousy (*yaqniʾuhu*) with strange gods... they have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God"*, the verse Paul activates at [Rom 10:19](/codex/romans-10-19/), [11](/codex/romans-10-11/):11, 14 - [Psalm 78:58](/codex/psalms-78-58/), *"they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images"* - **[Psalm 79:5](/codex/psalms-79-5/)**, *"how long, O LORD? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?"* ### Positive restoration-zeal, God *qana* *for* His people The same root in restoration-context names God's *positive-protective zeal* deployed *on behalf of* His people: - **[Joel 2.18](/codex/joel-2-18/)** (stub built 2026-05-31), *"then was the LORD jealous (*qinneʾ*) for his land, and had pity on his people"*, the pivot-verse from indictment to restoration in Joel - **[Zechariah 1.14](/codex/zechariah-1-14/)** (stub built 2026-05-31), *"I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy"* (*qinʾah gedolah*) - **[Zech 8:2](/codex/zechariah-8-2/)**, *"I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath"* The Joel-Zechariah deployment is essential to the divine-jealousy apologetic: the same *qana* that judges idolatry also *protects* the covenant people; the lexeme names *covenantal love that takes the covenant seriously enough to act on either side of the line*. ## Apologetic deployment, the equivocation-defeater The contemporary New Atheist polemic (Hitchens, Dawkins, Ehrman) deploys the *El qanna* texts as evidence that the biblical God is *petty / insecure / morally inferior to common humans*, Hitchens's repeated jibe about *"a North-Korean-style dictator who demands love"*; Dawkins's *God Delusion* charge that the OT God is *"jealous and proud of it."* The defeater runs on the **equivocation-exposure** pattern (see [Equivocation Defeater Pattern](/codex/equivocation/)): 1. **Identify the contested key term.** *Jealous* in English is ambiguous between *insecure-envious-jealousy* (the vice) and *protective-zeal-for-a-rightful-claim* (the virtue, e.g. a husband's jealousy for his wife). 2. **Distinguish the two senses.** The vice-sense is *jealousy-of-what-isn't-yours* (Cain envying Abel; Saul envying David). The virtue-sense is *jealousy-for-what-is-rightly-yours* (a husband's protective-zeal for his wife's covenant fidelity). 3. **Show which sense the objection targets.** The atheist deployment assumes the *vice*-sense, *"the OT God is insecure / petty / threatened."* 4. **Show that Christianity / the OT deploys the *other* sense.** The biblical *qana* applied to God is *always* covenantal-protective-zeal, never the insecure-envious sense. The marriage-covenant frame makes this explicit: God is rightful husband of Israel; idolatry is covenant-adultery; *qana* is the right response of the right-bearer to the violation of the right. 5. **Conclude the objection equivocates.** The atheist objection works *only* if biblical *qana* maps to vice-jealousy. It doesn't. The objection collapses on the lexical-semantic ground. The defeater is treated in full at [Divine Jealousy Is Covenantal Zeal (Defeater)](/codex/divine-jealousy-is-covenantal-zeal-defeater/); this lexical entry is its lexical foundation. ## Notable verses ### God's *qana* (verbal form) and *qanna* (adjective) - **[Exodus 20.5](/codex/exodus-20-5/)**, *"I, the LORD thy God, am a jealous God"*, the Decalogue - **[Exodus 34.14](/codex/exodus-34-14/)**, *"the LORD, whose name is Jealous"*, the divine self-naming - **[Deuteronomy 4.24](/codex/deuteronomy-4-24/)**, *"the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, a jealous God"* - [Deuteronomy 5:9](/codex/deuteronomy-5-9/); 6:15; [Joshua 24:19](/codex/joshua-24-19/), the covenant-renewal repetitions - [Deuteronomy 32:16](/codex/deuteronomy-32-16/), [21](/codex/deuteronomy-32-21/), *qana* in the Song of Moses (Paul cites at [Rom 10:19](/codex/romans-10-19/), [11](/codex/romans-10-11/):11) - [Psalm 78:58](/codex/psalms-78-58/), Israel provoking *qana* in idolatry - [Nahum 1:2](/codex/nahum-1-2/), *"the LORD is a jealous God and avengeth"*, the divine-vengeance pairing ### Human *qana* approved - **[Numbers 25.11-13](/codex/numbers-25-11-13/)**, Phinehas's covenant-zeal; God's covenant of peace - **[1 Kings 19.14](/codex/1-kings-19-14/)**, Elijah's *"I have been very jealous for the LORD"* - [1 Kings 19:10](/codex/1-kings-19-10/) (parallel statement) - [2 Kings 10:16](/codex/2-kings-10-16/), Jehu's *"come, see my zeal for the LORD"* ### Restoration-zeal, God *qana* *for* His people - **[Joel 2.18](/codex/joel-2-18/)**, *"then was the LORD jealous for his land"* - **[Zechariah 1.14](/codex/zechariah-1-14/)**, *"I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy"* - [Zechariah 8:2](/codex/zechariah-8-2/), the doubled *qinʾah-gedolah* statement - [Isaiah 9:7](/codex/isaiah-9-7/), [37](/codex/isaiah-9-37/):32, 42:13, 59:17, the *qinʾah-zealot* warrior-imagery ### Negative human *qana*, envious sin - [Genesis 30:1](/codex/genesis-30-1/), Rachel's envy of Leah - [Genesis 37:11](/codex/genesis-37-11/), Joseph's brothers' envy - [Proverbs 3:31](/codex/proverbs-3-31/); 23:17; 24:1, 19, *"envy not the wicked"* - [Proverbs 14:30](/codex/proverbs-14-30/), *"qinʾah is the rottenness of the bones"* - [Job 5:2](/codex/job-5-2/), *"jealousy slayeth the silly one"* ### NT activation via *zēloō* / *parazēloō* - [Romans 10:19](/codex/romans-10-19/), *"I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people"* ([Deut 32:21](/codex/deuteronomy-32-21/)) - [Romans 11:11](/codex/romans-11-11/), [14](/codex/romans-11-14/), the *parazēloō* strategy, Gentile inclusion as God's jealousy-strategy - [1 Corinthians 10:22](/codex/1-corinthians-10-22/), *"do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?"* - [2 Corinthians 11:2](/codex/2-corinthians-11-2/), *"I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy"* - [John 2:17](/codex/john-2-17/), Christ's *zēlos* for His Father's house (quoting [Ps 69:9](/codex/psalms-69-9/)) - [Galatians 4:18](/codex/galatians-4-18/), *"it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing"* ## Patristic / scholarly note **Patristic.** **Tertullian** (*Adversus Marcionem* II.16; II.29) defends the OT *qana*-language against Marcion's rejection of the OT God: God's jealousy is the *appropriate divine response to covenant-breaking*, not a passion. **Origen** (*Contra Celsum* IV.71-72) engages Celsus's mockery of the "jealous God" via the analogical-predication doctrine. **Athanasius** (*Contra Gentes* 7-8) treats divine zeal as the active divine love expressed against creaturely substitution. **Augustine** (*Confessions* III.7.13; *De Trinitate* V; *City of God* XV.7) develops the active-dispositional reading of divine jealousy: God's *zelus* is His eternal character expressing itself appropriately, not a temporal-emotional change. **Scholastic.** **Aquinas** (*ST* I, q. 19, a. 11; q. 20; q. 13 on analogical predication), the most sustained scholastic treatment. Divine jealousy is not a passion but an *analogical* attribute, applies to God *truly* but not *univocally* with creaturely jealousy. The analogy preserves both the real divine attribute and the transcendence of God's essence. The standard scholastic distinction between *passiones* (passions, denied of God) and *active-dispositional acts* (affirmed) becomes the standard frame for handling biblical divine-emotion language. **Reformation.** **Calvin** (*Institutes* I.13.1; II.8.18), divine jealousy is the *rightness of His exclusive worship-claim* + *the appropriateness of His response to its violation*. Calvin makes the marriage-covenant frame explicit. **Luther** (*Lectures on Genesis*; *Larger Catechism* on the First Commandment), divine jealousy as *covenantal love that takes idolatry seriously*. Reformed orthodoxy (Owen, Charnock, Edwards) develops the doctrine within the broader divine-attributes framework. **Modern Hebraist scholarship.** Brown-Driver-Briggs and HALOT both note the wide semantic range of *qana* and the covenantal-protective concentration in divine-application. *NIDOTTE* (vol. 3, pp. 937-940, by S. Erlandsson) and *TDOT* (vol. 13, by H.G.L. Peels) give the most extensive treatments. **G.K. Beale** (*We Become What We Worship*, 2008) treats the biblical-theology of *qana* / idolatry / divine-jealousy as one integrated doctrine. **Jon Levenson** (*Sinai and Zion*, 1985) treats the Jewish-Hebraist *qanna* tradition within the Sinai-marriage frame. **Paul Copan** (*Is God a Moral Monster?*, 2011, ch. 3), the contemporary apologetic treatment defending the equivocation-exposing move against the New Atheist deployment. **Apologetic deployment.** The divine-jealousy doctrine is one of the most-attacked OT divine-attribute claims in contemporary New Atheist polemic. The defeater is structured at [Divine Jealousy Is Covenantal Zeal (Defeater)](/codex/divine-jealousy-is-covenantal-zeal-defeater/), built on the lexical foundation this entry and [H7068 - qinah](/codex/h7068-qinah/) provide. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ Anchor texts: [Exodus 20.5](/codex/exodus-20-5/) (Decalogue); [Exodus 34.14](/codex/exodus-34-14/) (*Qanna* self-naming); [Deuteronomy 4.24](/codex/deuteronomy-4-24/) (consuming fire); [Numbers 25.11-13](/codex/numbers-25-11-13/) (Phinehas); [1 Kings 19.14](/codex/1-kings-19-14/) (Elijah); [Joel 2.18](/codex/joel-2-18/) (restoration-zeal); [Zechariah 1.14](/codex/zechariah-1-14/) (Zion-zeal). ## See also - [H7068 - qinah](/codex/h7068-qinah/), *qinʾah* (the feminine noun cognate, "jealousy / zeal"), companion entry - [G2205 - zelos](/codex/g2205-zelos/), *zēlos* (Greek correspondent of *qinʾah*) - *G2206 - zeloo*, *zēloō* (Greek verbal correspondent of *qana*) - [H2617 - hesed](/codex/h2617-hesed/), *ḥesed* (covenant loyalty), companion covenant-attribute - [H6918 - qadosh](/codex/h6918-qadosh/), *qadosh* (holy), companion divine-attribute (the *holy* God who is therefore *qana*) - [Idolatry](/codex/idolatry/), what divine *qana* responds to - [Divine Jealousy Is Covenantal Zeal (Defeater)](/codex/divine-jealousy-is-covenantal-zeal-defeater/), the structured apologetic this entry supports - [Equivocation Defeater Pattern](/codex/equivocation/), the meta-pattern that the divine-jealousy defeater instances - Passages: [Exodus 20.5](/codex/exodus-20-5/), [Exodus 34.14](/codex/exodus-34-14/), [Deuteronomy 4.24](/codex/deuteronomy-4-24/), [Numbers 25.11-13](/codex/numbers-25-11-13/), [1 Kings 19.14](/codex/1-kings-19-14/), [Joel 2.18](/codex/joel-2-18/), [Zechariah 1.14](/codex/zechariah-1-14/) ## Notes _Lexical workspace for qana (verbal root)._