The Old Testament books of prophecy reflect the gender emphases of their times. The terms “man” and “men” are sometimes generic, including male and female, and at times specific, meaning male. In the English Standard Version (ESV), the words “man” and “men” occur 561 times in the prophets, while “woman” and “women” occur 84 times. “He” and “him” occur 1,850 times, compared with 652 times for “she” and “her.”
In the prophets, other terms are as follows:
- son(s) 406
- daughter(s) 138
- father(s) 14o
- mother(s) 33
- king(s) 601
- queen(s) 10