Hebrew · Strong's H2898
טוּב
tuwb (toov)
noun, masculine
Goodness as a tangible thing—the bounty, prosperity, and beauty God lavishes on His people.
Tuwb is the noun form of the more common adjective tov (H2896, "good"). Where tov describes a quality, tuwb names the substance—the actual good things God supplies. It can refer to material abundance ("the good of the land," Genesis 45:18, 20, 23), the prosperity of a city (Jeremiah 33:9), or the moral and aesthetic beauty of God Himself.
Its most famous appearance is Moses' request in Exodus 33:19: "I will make all my goodness pass before thee"—God's response to the prayer, "Shew me thy glory." The goodness that passes before Moses is the proclamation of the divine name: "The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6). God's tuwb is the visible expression of who He is.
The Psalms savor this divine goodness as something to be tasted and remembered. Psalm 27:13 confesses confidence in "see[ing] the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living." Psalm 31:19 marvels, "O how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee." Psalm 145:7 promises that one generation will pour out "the memory of thy great goodness" to the next. Nehemiah looks back on Israel's history and sees a people whom God satisfied "in thy great goodness" (Nehemiah 9:25, 35). Tuwb is goodness you can live on.
Common English renderings
- goodness
- good things
- bounty
- prosperity
- beauty
Key verses
"And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim the name of Jehovah before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."
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"I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of Jehovah In the land of the living."
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"Oh how great is thy goodness, Which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, Which thou hast wrought for them that take refuge in thee, Before the sons of men!"
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"They shall utter the memory of thy great goodness, And shall sing of thy righteousness."
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"And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow unto the goodness of Jehovah, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all."
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"afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek Jehovah their God, and David their king, and shall come with fear unto Jehovah and to his goodness in the latter days."
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Related words