Word study
Animal
5 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: animals, animal. 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 “animal” 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)
- בְּהֵמָה behêmâhbeast, animal, cattletranslated this way 57 times of its 186 uses · Strong’s H929Noun · Translated: livestock 45, beast 43, animal 32, animals 21Full study and all 171 verses →
Genesis 6:20 Two of every kind of bird and animal and crawling creature will come to you to be kept alive.
Exodus 22:10 If a man gives a donkey, an ox, a sheep, or any other animal to be cared for by his neighbor, but it dies or is injured or stolen while no one is watching,
- חַי chayalive, livingtranslated this way 22 times of its 485 uses · Strong’s H2416Noun · Translated: life 112, lives 62, living 59, live 53Full study and all 441 verses →
Genesis 7:14 they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature.
Exodus 23:11 but in the seventh year you must let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor among your people may eat from the field and the wild animals may consume what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and olive grove.
- צֹאן tsônsmall cattle, sheep and goats, flock, flockstranslated this way 4 times of its 259 uses · Strong’s H6629Noun · Translated: sheep 89, flock 76, flocks 63, like sheep 8Full study and all 238 verses →
Genesis 30:40 Jacob set apart the young, but made the rest face the streaked dark-colored sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and did not put them with Laban’s animals.
Genesis 30:41 Whenever the stronger females of the flock were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they would breed in front of the branches.
- טְרֵפָה ṭerêphâhanimal torntranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H2966Noun · Translated: mauled by wild beasts 3Full study and all 9 verses →
Exodus 22:31 You are to be My holy people. You must not eat the meat of a mauled animal found in the field; you are to throw it to the dogs.’’
Leviticus 22:8 He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, which would make him unclean. I am the LORD.
- הוּא hûhe, shetranslated this way 2 times of its 1,425 uses · Strong’s H1931Pronoun · Translated: he 269, it 151, that 114, on that 87Full study and all 1,320 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- θηρίον thēríona wild beast, animaltranslated this way 3 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s G2342Noun · Translated: beast 36, creature 2, beasts 2Full study and all 38 verses →
Mark 1:13 and He was there for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels ministered to Him.
Hebrews 12:20 For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”
- τετράπους tetrápousfour-footedtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G5074Adjective · Translated: four-footed animals 2, animals 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Acts 10:12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, as well as birds of the air.
Romans 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
- πνικτός pniktósstrangledtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4156Adjective · Translated: meat of strangled animals 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Acts 15:20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
Acts 15:29 You must abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.
- ζῶον zōonan animaltranslated this way 3 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s G2226Noun · Translated: living creatures 13, living creature 4, animals 3Full study and all 20 verses →
Hebrews 13:11 Although the high priest brings the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, the bodies are burned outside the camp.
2 Peter 2:12 These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed.
- κτῆνος ktēnosa beast of burdentranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G2934Noun · Translated: animal 1, mounts 1, animals 1, cattle 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Luke 10:34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
1 Corinthians 15:39 Not all flesh is the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another.
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.