Word study
Archer
10 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: archers, archer. 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 “archer” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- יָרָה yârâhthrow, shoottranslated this way 4 times of its 78 uses · Strong’s H3384Verb · Translated: teach 20, shoot 9, instruct 6, shot 5Full study and all 72 verses →
1 Samuel 31:3 When the battle intensified against Saul, the archers overtook him and wounded him critically.
2 Samuel 11:24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants were killed. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.”
- רַב rabarchertranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H7228Noun · Translated: archers 2, Like an archer 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Job 16:13 His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and spills my gall on the ground.
Proverbs 26:10 Like an archer who wounds at random is he who hires a fool or passerby.
- דָּרַךְ dâraktread, marchtranslated this way 2 times of its 61 uses · Strong’s H1869Verb · Translated: bent 5, treads 4, tread 4, bend 4Full study and all 59 verses →
1 Chronicles 8:40 The sons of Ulam were mighty men of valor, archers, and they had many sons and grandsons— 150 in all. All these were the descendants of Benjamin.
Jeremiah 51:3 Do not let the archer bend his bow or put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; devote all her army to destruction!
- נָשַׁק nâshaqkisstranslated this way 2 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s H5401Verb · Translated: kissed 15, kiss 9, archers 2Full study and all 35 verses →
1 Chronicles 12:2 they were archers using both the right and left hands to sling stones and shoot arrows; and they were Saul’s kinsmen from Benjamin):
Psalm 78:9 The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle.
- קַשָּׁת qashshâthbowmantranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H7199Noun · Translated: archer 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Genesis 21:20 And God was with the boy, and he grew up and settled in the wilderness and became a great archer.
- רָמָה râmâhcast, shoottranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s H7411Verb · Translated: deceived 3, thrown 2, deceive 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Jeremiah 4:29 Every city flees at the sound of the horseman and archer. They enter the thickets and climb among the rocks. Every city is abandoned; no inhabitant is left.
- תָּפַשׂ tâphaslay hold of, wieldtranslated this way 1 time of its 64 uses · Strong’s H8610Verb · Translated: seized 8, captured 7, take 4, Seize 4Full study and all 60 verses →
Amos 2:15 The archer will not stand his ground, the fleet of foot will not escape, and the horseman will not save his life.
- בַּעַל baalowner, lordtranslated this way 1 time of its 76 uses · Strong’s H1167Noun · Translated: owner 15, leaders 15, husband 6, bound 2Full study and all 72 verses →
Genesis 49:23 The archers attacked him with bitterness; they aimed at him in hostility.
- קֶשֶׁת qeshethbowtranslated this way 1 time of its 65 uses · Strong’s H7198Noun · Translated: bow 45, bows 11, rainbow 3, arrow 2Full study and all 64 verses →
Isaiah 21:17 The remaining archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be few.” For the LORD, the God of Israel, has spoken.
- מָשַׁךְ mâshakdraw, dragtranslated this way 1 time of its 34 uses · Strong’s H4900Verb · Translated: draw 3, drew 2, tall 2, Extend 2Full study and all 34 verses →
Isaiah 66:19 I will establish a sign among them, and I will send survivors from among them to the nations — to Tarshish, Put, and the archers of Lud; to Tubal, Javan, and the islands far away who have not heard of My fame or seen My glory. So they will proclaim My glory among the nations.
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.