Word study
Age
10 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: age, ages, aged. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “age” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- בֵּן bênsontranslated this way 35 times of its 4,587 uses · Strong’s H1121Noun · Translated: son 1,843, sons 892, Israelites 422, descendants 358Full study and all 3,473 verses →
- שָׁנֶה shânehyeartranslated this way 7 times of its 612 uses · Strong’s H8141Noun · Translated: years 295, year 255, years old 20, two years 7Full study and all 519 verses →
Genesis 50:22 Now Joseph and his father’s household remained in Egypt, and Joseph lived to the age of 110.
Leviticus 27:3 if the valuation concerns a male from twenty to sixty years of age, then your valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the sanctuary shekel.
- שֵׂיבָה sêbâhhoary head, old agetranslated this way 6 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7872Noun · Translated: old age 5, gray hair 3, gray 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Genesis 15:15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.
Judges 8:32 Later, Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
- עוֹלָם ôlâmlong duration, antiquity, futuritytranslated this way 6 times of its 341 uses · Strong’s H5769Noun · Translated: forever 114, everlasting 60, endures forever 43, permanent 38Full study and all 324 verses →
Psalm 25:6 Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and loving devotion, for they are from age to age.
Ecclesiastes 1:10 Is there a case where one can say, “Look, this is new”? It has already existed in the ages before us.
- זָקֵן zâqênoldtranslated this way 5 times of its 175 uses · Strong’s H2205Adjective · Translated: elders 118, old 23, elderly 5, aged 3Full study and all 169 verses →
Leviticus 19:32 You are to rise in the presence of the elderly, honor the aged, and fear your God. I am the LORD.
1 Samuel 2:31 Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that no one in it will reach old age.
- זָקֻן zâqunold agetranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H2208Noun · Translated: old age 4Full study and all 4 verses →
Genesis 21:2 So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised.
Genesis 21:7 She added, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
- זִקְנָה ziqnâhold agetranslated this way 4 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H2209Noun · Translated: old age 4, old 2Full study and all 6 verses →
Genesis 24:36 My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and my master has given him everything he owns.
1 Kings 15:23 Now the rest of the acts of Asa, along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his old age, however, he became diseased in his feet.
- דּוֹר dôrperiod, generation, dwellingtranslated this way 4 times of its 150 uses · Strong’s H1755Noun · Translated: generation 53, generations to come 30, generations 28, descendants 5Full study and all 124 verses →
Psalm 10:6 He says to himself, “I will not be moved; from age to age I am free of distress.”
Isaiah 58:12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will restore the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets of Dwelling.
- יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 2 times of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun · Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72Full study and all 1,744 verses →
- שֶׁמֶר shemerlees, dregstranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H8105Noun · Translated: dregs 2, aged wine 2, complacency 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Isaiah 25:6 On this mountain the LORD of Hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all the peoples, a feast of aged wine, of choice meat, of finely aged wine.
Greek words (New Testament)
- αἰών aiṓnan age, a cycle of timetranslated this way 29 times of its 108 uses · Strong’s G165Noun · Translated: forever 43, age 22, ever 21, ages 5Full study and all 85 verses →
Matthew 12:32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the one to come.
Mark 10:30 will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life.
- καιρός kairósfitting season, opportunity, timetranslated this way 2 times of its 82 uses · Strong’s G2540Noun · Translated: time 44, times 9, appointed time 4, harvest time 4Full study and all 77 verses →
Mark 10:30 will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life.
Luke 18:30 will fail to receive many times more in this age — and in the age to come, eternal life.”
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.