Hebrew Word Insights

A Hebrew word often carries more than one English word can hold. Here are thirty of them, with what the dictionary actually records.

30 words

• חֶסֶדchesed

  steadfast love, loyalty

  Love that behaves like loyalty

  Almost all of its appearances, more than two hundred of them, sit in the dictionary's domain of faithfulness rather than affection. It is kindness that holds, the loyalty of someone who keeps their word when nothing forces them to. Lamentations 3:22 puts it as the reason a people is not finished off.

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  • חסדchasad · to act loyally

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H2617, root family.

• שָׁלֹוםshalom

  peace, well-being, safety

  Peace as wholeness, not only quiet

  Its main sense in SDBH is not the absence of noise. It is safety, harmony, well-being, prosperity, a life with nothing missing. The root family runs through completing something, and most of that family is about paying, repaying and making restitution, so when Numbers 6:26 asks for peace it is asking for a life with nothing left outstanding.

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  • שׁלםshalem · to repay, to complete

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H7965, root family.

• אֱמוּנָהemunah

  faithfulness, reliability

  Faith as something you can stand on

  Nearly every use of the noun means faithfulness, reliability, dependability, a quality of the one being trusted more than a mood in the one trusting. It shares a root with aman, to trust and to hold firm, with emet, truth, and with the amen a congregation says out loud. Habakkuk 2:4 is the word the just one lives by.

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  • אמןaman · to trust, to hold firm
  • אֱמֶתemet · truth, faithfulness
  • אָמֵןamen · amen, so be it

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H530, root family.

• אָמֵןamen

  amen, so be it

  A word you answer with

  SDBH files it among the words that affirm, and its work is response. A whole people answers with it in Deuteronomy 27:15, and it closes a song of praise in 1 Chronicles 16:36. It belongs to the same family as emunah, faithfulness, and aman, to trust, so saying it is agreeing to stand on what was just said.

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  • אמןaman · to trust, to hold firm
  • אֱמוּנָהemunah · faithfulness, reliability

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H543, root family.

• בגדbagad

  to betray, to break faith

  Betrayal and a garment share a family

  The verb means to act without faith, to deal treacherously, to break trust, and Malachi 2:14 uses it of a husband toward the wife of his youth. Its root family holds beged, which in most of its appearances is simply clothes, the garments of Isaiah 61:10, and in two places means treachery itself. In this family, betrayal is something a person puts on.

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  • בֶּגֶדbeged · clothes, garment
  • בָּגֹודbagod · treacherous one

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entries H898 and H899, root family.

• רוּחַruach

  spirit, wind, breath

  Wind, breath and Spirit in one word

  SDBH spreads this word across the weather, the human interior and God himself: breeze and wind, the mind and spirit of a person, the breath in a body, and the Spirit of God. No single English or Portuguese word carries all of that, so every translator picks one and the rest fall quiet. Genesis 1:2 sits exactly on that seam.

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H7307.

• נֶפֶשׁnephesh

  life, soul, self

  Not a part of you, but you

  Its largest sense by far is life itself, the living self, with appetite and need attached to it. The dictionary also records it for a person, simply someone, and in a handful of places for the throat. Genesis 2:7 does not say the man was given a soul, it says he became one.

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  • נפשׁnaphash · to rest, to catch breath

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H5315.

• לֵבlev

  heart, mind, attention

  The heart is where you think

  Most of its uses are filed under thinking rather than feeling: mind, attention, courage, the place where decisions get made. The organ in the chest accounts for a small share, and in a dozen places the word simply means the middle of something. Proverbs 4:23 tells you to guard it because everything you do leaves from there.

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  • לֵבָבlevav · heart, mind, courage

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H3820.

• כָּבֹודkavod

  glory, honour, weight

  Glory with weight in it

  Its commonest senses are honour, power and dignity, and a large group of texts use it for the presence of God itself. The root underneath is heaviness: the verb kaved means to be heavy, to be hard to carry, and also to honour. When Exodus 33:18 asks to see glory, it is asking for something with mass, not a glow.

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  • כבדkaved · to be heavy, to honour

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H3519, root family.

• חטאchata

  to sin, to miss

  Sin first, missing in a few places

  The dictionary's dominant sense is plainly to sin, in well over a hundred places, with a second group meaning to make someone else sin. In a small handful the same verb is simply to miss: Judges 20:16 uses it of slingers who could aim at a hair's breadth and not miss. The famous picture of missing the mark is real, and it is the rare edge of this word rather than its centre.

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  • חַטָּאתchattat · sin, sin offering
  • חֵטְאchet · guilt, sin

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H2398, root family.

• עָוֹןavon

  iniquity, guilt

  Wrong that bends what it touches

  SDBH gives the noun a single sense across more than two hundred places: iniquity, sin, and the guilt that comes attached. Its root is mostly about acting wrongly and being perverse, and in one single place it means to twist something out of shape. Isaiah 53:6 lays that whole weight, all of ours, on someone else.

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  • עוהavah · to do wrong, to twist

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H5771, root family.

• שׁובshuv

  to turn, to return

  Repentance is a change of direction

  Most of its hundreds of uses are ordinary movement: going back, coming home, bringing something back, giving something back. The same verb carries turning away from a course and turning toward a person, which is why Joel 2:12 can call a whole nation to return with all its heart. Repentance here is less a feeling about the past than a direction for the feet.

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  • תְּשׁוּבָהteshuvah · a returning
  • מְשׁוּבָהmeshuvah · backsliding, unfaithfulness

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H7725, root family.

• ברךbarak

  to bless, to praise

  Blessing and knees in one family

  Almost every use of the verb is blessing: to bless, to praise, to greet someone with good words. In a few places it is to kneel, and the noun berek, knee, sits in the same family. Genesis 12:2 says it over Abram and then turns him into it, a blessing walking around.

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  • בֶּרֶךְberek · knee
  • בְּרָכָהberakah · blessing, a gift

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H1288, root family.

• ידהyadah

  to praise, to confess

  Praise and confession in one verb

  The verb works mostly as praise, with a smaller group of uses for confession, which is the same act of saying out loud what is true. Its relative todah holds the whole cluster in one word: a thanksgiving offering, praise, a choir, and a confession. Psalm 100:4 has both words standing side by side.

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  • תֹּודָהtodah · thanksgiving, praise, choir
  • הֹודhod · glory, honour
  • הֻיְּדֹותhuyyedot · songs of thanksgiving

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H3034, root family.

• תֹּורָהtorah

  law, precept, statute

  The dictionary gives it no definition

  SDBH carries this entry with no senses at all, no definition and no glosses, which is unusual enough to say out loud. What it does record is the family: torah belongs with yarah, a verb for throwing and for shooting arrows, and Strong's traces the same derivation. We would rather leave the silence where the dictionary left it than fill it in.

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  • ירהyarah · to throw, to shoot

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H8451, root family. Gloss and derivation from Strong's H8451 (public domain), which SDBH does not supply.

• קָדֹושׁqadosh

  holy, set apart

  Set apart before it means pure

  The senses cluster around being holy and being consecrated, and a good share of them sit in the dictionary's domain of separation. The verb in the same family is mostly to set apart, to dedicate, to consecrate, an act done to a thing rather than a quality it already had. Leviticus 19:2 makes God's own holiness the reason for asking it of a people.

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  • קדשׁqadash · to set apart, to consecrate

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H6918, root family.

• רַחֲמִיםrachamim

  compassion, mercy

  Compassion shaped like a womb

  Every appearance of the noun in SDBH means compassion and mercy. The dictionary files it with rechem, the womb, a word also used of the mother herself, and with the verb racham, to be merciful, to have compassion, which in one solitary place means simply to love. Psalm 103:4 crowns a life with this word, and what is under it is the tenderness of a body that carried you.

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  • רֶחֶםrechem · womb, mother
  • רחםracham · to have compassion

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H7356, root family.

• מִשְׁפָּטmishpat

  justice, judgment, law

  Justice as a ruling, not an ideal

  Its two largest senses are law and rules on one side and justice, what is right, on the other, with a big group meaning a court decision, a legal case, a right that belongs to someone. It also covers custom, the ordinary way a thing is rightly done. Micah 6:8 asks for it as something you do, not something you hold an opinion about.

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  • שׁפטshafat · to judge, to govern

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H4941, root family.

• יראyare

  to fear, to revere

  One verb for terror and reverence

  SDBH keeps fear and reverence inside a single sense: being afraid of something and holding it in awe are not separate words here. The related adjective describes a person as one who fears God, which is an identity rather than a mood. Deuteronomy 10:12 lists it first among the things asked of Israel, next to walking, loving and serving.

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  • יִרְאָהyirah · fear, awe
  • יָרֵאyare · one who fears

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H3372, root family.

• אָדָםadam

  human being, humankind

  The human and the ground, one root

  In the great majority of its appearances the word is not a name but a species: a human being, humankind, people in general. The dictionary sets it in the same family as adamah, the ground and the soil, and as a verb meaning to be red and to dye red. Genesis 2:7 puts both words in one sentence, the human and the dust.

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  • אֲדָמָהadamah · ground, soil, earth
  • אדםadam · to be red, to dye red

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entries H120 and H127, root family.

• גאלgaal

  to redeem, to buy back

  Redemption was a family duty

  Nearly all of its uses are rescue: to set free, to redeem, to buy back what was lost. In a large group of places the word names a person rather than an act, the relative who carries that duty for his own, which is what Boaz is called in Ruth 3:9. Job 19:25 puts the same word in God's hands.

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  • גְּאֻלָּהgeullah · redemption, right of redemption

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H1350, root family.

• זכרzakar

  to remember, to consider

  Remembering that does something

  The main sense is to remember, to keep in mind, to take into account, and the family around it holds memorials, written records and the title of a royal official. In the Bible this kind of remembering usually arrives with action attached: in Genesis 8:1 God remembers Noah and the water begins to go down. Deuteronomy 5:15 asks a freed people to remember that they were slaves.

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  • זֵכֶרzeker · remembrance, name
  • זִכָּרֹוןzikkaron · memorial, record

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H2142, root family.

• עֵזֶרezer

  help, support, rescue

  Help that arrives with strength

  The uses of this noun are few and heavy: help, support, rescue, the kind that changes the outcome. It is the word used of the woman in Genesis 2:18 and of God himself in Psalm 121:2, the same noun in both places. Whatever else it means, it is not a word for someone lesser.

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  • עזרazar · to help, to support

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H5828, root family.

• יְשׁוּעָהyeshuah

  salvation, deliverance, victory

  Salvation that looks like rescue

  The noun carries salvation, deliverance, help and victory together in one sense, and the verb behind it is used nearly two hundred times for getting someone out of trouble. It is concrete before it is theological: Exodus 14:30 uses the verb of a people pulled out of reach of Egypt. Exodus 15:2 turns that rescue into a song.

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  • ישׁעyasha · to save, to deliver
  • יֵשַׁעyesha · salvation, deliverance
  • תְּשׁוּעָהteshuah · deliverance, victory

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H3444, root family.

• כפרkafar

  to atone, to make expiation

  Atonement, and a price actually paid

  Most of its uses are the priestly act, to make atonement and propitiation, with a smaller group that simply means to forgive. Its relative kofer is mostly a price: the ransom or the bribe paid to settle a matter, as in Exodus 21:30. The familiar idea that the verb means to cover appears here exactly once, so it is a footnote and not the meaning.

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  • כֹּפֶרkofer · ransom, bribe price
  • כִּפֻּרִיםkippurim · atonement

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H3722, root family.

• הֶבֶלhevel

  vapour, futility, emptiness

  Mostly futility, once a puff of air

  Most of its uses mean futility, emptiness, what will not hold, and a group of them names an idol that cannot deliver what it promises. In a single place it is just a puff of air. Ecclesiastes 1:2 stacks the word on itself, and the complaint underneath is less that life is a lie than that it will not stay still.

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  • הבלhaval · to become futile

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H1892, root family.

• נחםnacham

  to comfort, to console

  Comfort and a change of mind

  One verb does two jobs here: comforting someone who is grieving, and changing your mind about something you had set out to do. Isaiah 40:1 opens with the first, said twice over. Psalm 23:4 uses it of a rod and a staff, comfort that is not a speech but a presence.

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  • תַּנְחוּםtanchum · consolation
  • נֶחָמָהnechamah · comfort

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H5162, root family.

• תִּקְוָהtiqvah

  hope, expectation

  Hope, and in two places a cord

  Hope is what the word means, in more than thirty places. In exactly two it is a cord, the scarlet line tied in the window in Joshua 2:18, and the verb behind it, qavah, is to wait and to look out for something. Jeremiah 29:11 promises this noun to people who were already in exile when they read it.

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  • קוהqavah · to wait, to look for
  • מִקְוֶהmiqveh · hope, gathered water

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H8615, root family.

• חֵןchen

  favour, grace, kindness

  Favour given, never owed

  Most of its uses are favour and goodwill, one person looking kindly on another, with a smaller group meaning beauty or charm. Genesis 6:8 says Noah found it, which is how this word tends to work: it is found or given rather than earned. The verb in its family runs in both directions, showing favour and pleading for it.

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  • חנןchanan · to be gracious, to plead

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H2580, root family.

• סֶלָהselah

  selah, left untranslated

  A word the dictionary does not explain

  SDBH files it among words used in singing and gives one gloss, which is the word itself. There is no definition and no root family to reason from, so anyone who tells you what it means is going beyond the evidence. Our English and Portuguese texts both leave it standing in the Psalms exactly as they found it.

  UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (SDBH), entry H5542.