Word study
Ankle
3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: ankles, ankle. 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 “ankle” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- קַרְסֹל qarsôlankletranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H7166Noun · Translated: ankles 2Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Samuel 22:37 You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.
Psalm 18:36 You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.
- רֶגֶל regelfoottranslated this way 1 time of its 213 uses · Strong’s H7272Noun · Translated: feet 128, foot 45, legs 8, times 4Full study and all 203 verses →
Isaiah 3:16 The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty — walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles —
- צְעָדָה tseâdâhmarchingtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6807Noun · Translated: marching 2, ankle chains 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Isaiah 3:20 their headdresses, ankle chains, and sashes; their perfume bottles and charms;
Greek words (New Testament)
- σφυρόν sphyrónthe ankle bonetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4974Noun · Translated: ankles 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Acts 3:7 Taking him by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong.
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.