Word study
Ash
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: ashes, ash. 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 “ash” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- אֵפֶר êpherashestranslated this way 21 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H665Noun · Translated: ashes 20, like ashes 1, dust 1Full study and all 22 verses →
Genesis 18:27 Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord— though I am but dust and ashes—
Numbers 19:9 Then a man who is ceremonially clean is to gather up the ashes of the heifer and store them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept by the congregation of Israel for preparing the water of purification; this is for purification from sin.
- דֶּשֶׁן deshenfatness, fat ashestranslated this way 8 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H1880Noun · Translated: ashes 7Full study and all 14 verses →
Leviticus 1:16 And he is to remove the crop with its contents and throw it to the east side of the altar, in the place for ashes.
1 Kings 13:3 That day the man of God gave a sign, saying, “The LORD has spoken this sign: ‘Surely the altar will be split apart, and the ashes upon it will be poured out.’”
- דָּשֵׁן dâshênbe fat, grow fattranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H1878Verb · Translated: prosper 3Full study and all 11 verses →
Exodus 27:3 Make all its utensils of bronze — its pots for removing ashes, its shovels, its sprinkling bowls, its meat forks, and its firepans.
Numbers 4:13 Then they shall remove the ashes from the bronze altar, spread a purple cloth over it,
- עָפָר âphârdry earth, dusttranslated this way 2 times of its 110 uses · Strong’s H6083Noun · Translated: dust 73, soil 6, like dust 5, like the dust 3Full study and all 103 verses →
Numbers 19:17 For the purification of the unclean person, take some of the ashes of the burnt sin offering, put them in a jar, and pour fresh water over them.
2 Kings 23:4 Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the priests second in rank, and the doorkeepers to remove from the temple of the LORD all the articles made for Baal, Asherah, and all the host of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.
- אַשְׁפֹּת ashpôthash-heap(?), refuse-heap, dung-hilltranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H830Noun · Translated: Dung 3, ash heap 1, toward the dung 1, dump 1Full study and all 7 verses →
1 Samuel 2:8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s, and upon them He has set the world.
Lamentations 4:5 Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
Greek words (New Testament)
- σποδός spodósashestranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4700Noun · Translated: ashes 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Matthew 11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Luke 10:13 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
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.
What the Bible says about ash: passages by topic →
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.