Word study
Alliance
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “alliance”. 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 “alliance” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- חָבַר châbarunitetranslated this way 3 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s H2266Verb · Translated: joined 6, join 4, attached 2, fastened 2Full study and all 24 verses →
2 Chronicles 20:35 Later, Jehoshaphat king of Judah made an alliance with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted wickedly.
Daniel 11:6 After some years they will form an alliance, and the daughter of the king of the South will go to the king of the North to seal the agreement. But his daughter will not retain her position of power, nor will his strength endure. At that time she will be given up, along with her royal escort and her father and the one who supported her.
- דָּבָר dâbârspeech, wordtranslated this way 2 times of its 1,244 uses · Strong’s H1697Noun · Translated: word 342, words 299, acts 51, Chronicles 42Full study and all 1,120 verses →
Judges 18:7 So the five men departed and came to Laish, where they saw that the people were living securely, like the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting. There was nothing lacking in the land and no oppressive ruler. And they were far away from the Sidonians and had no alliance with anyone.
Judges 18:28 There was no one to deliver them, because the city was far from Sidon and had no alliance with anyone; it was in a valley near Beth-rehob. And the Danites rebuilt the city and lived there.
- חָתַן châthanwife's fathertranslated this way 1 time of its 32 uses · Strong’s H2859Noun · Translated: father-in-law 19, son-in-law 5, intermarry 4Full study and all 31 verses →
1 Kings 3:1 Later, Solomon formed an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt by marrying his daughter. Solomon brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his palace and the house of the LORD, as well as the wall around Jerusalem.
- בְּרִית berîthcovenanttranslated this way 1 time of its 283 uses · Strong’s H1285Noun · Translated: covenant 261, treaty 17, alliance 1, like the covenant 1Full study and all 264 verses →
Psalm 83:5 For with one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against You—
- מִצְרַיִם MitsrayimEgypt, Egyptianstranslated this way 1 time of its 623 uses · Strong’s H4714Noun · Translated: Egypt 558, Egyptians 46, Egypt's 5, Mizraim 4Full study and all 572 verses →
- מַסֵּכָה massêkâhmolten metal, or imagetranslated this way 1 time of its 28 uses · Strong’s H4541Noun · Translated: molten 5, molten idol 5, cast images 4, molten image 3Full study and all 28 verses →
Isaiah 30:1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
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.