Word study

Ah

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “ah”. 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 “ah” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אֲהָהּ ăhâhhalas!translated this way 5 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H162Interjection  ·  Translated: oh 5, Ah 5, Alas 2, o 1

    Jeremiah 1:6 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!”

    Ezekiel 4:14 “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

    Full study and all 15 verses →
  • רָאָה rââhseetranslated this way 1 time of its 1,266 uses · Strong’s H7200Verb  ·  Translated: see 354, saw 285, seen 124, look 45

    Genesis 27:27 So he came near and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothing, he blessed him and said: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

    Full study and all 1,181 verses →
  • אוֹי ôywoe!translated this way 1 time of its 24 uses · Strong’s H188Interjection  ·  Translated: Woe 23, Ah 1

    Numbers 24:23 Once more Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Ah, who can live unless God has ordained it?

    Full study and all 23 verses →
  • הוֹי hôyAh, Alas, Hatranslated this way 1 time of its 51 uses · Strong’s H1945Interjection  ·  Translated: Woe 36, Alas 8, Get 3, Ah 1

    Isaiah 1:24 Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will be relieved of My foes and avenge Myself on My enemies.

    Full study and all 47 verses →
  • הֶאָח heâchAha!translated this way 1 time of its 12 uses · Strong’s H1889Interjection  ·  Translated: Aha 10, fervor 1, Ah 1

    Isaiah 44:16 He burns half of it in the fire, and he roasts meat on that half. He eats the roast and is satisfied. Indeed, he warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”

    Full study and all 9 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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.