Word study
Axe
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: axe, axes. 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 “axe” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- קַרְדֹּם qardômaxetranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7134Noun · Translated: axes 3, axe 2Full study and all 5 verses →
Judges 9:48 he and all his men went up to Mount Zalmon. Abimelech took his axe in his hand and cut a branch from the trees, which he lifted to his shoulder, saying to his men, “Hurry and do what you have seen me do.”
1 Samuel 13:20 Instead, all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles.
- גַּרְזֶן garzenaxetranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H1631Noun · Translated: axe 3, chisel 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Deuteronomy 19:5 If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber and swings his axe to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes and kills his neighbor, he may flee to one of these cities to save his life.
Isaiah 10:15 Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood!
- בַּרְזֶל barzelirontranslated this way 2 times of its 73 uses · Strong’s H1270Noun · Translated: iron 64, iron tool 2, axe 2Full study and all 68 verses →
Ecclesiastes 10:10 If the axe is dull and the blade unsharpened, more strength must be exerted, but skill produces success.
Isaiah 10:34 He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
- מַגְזֵרָה magzêrâhcutting instrument, axetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H4037Noun · Translated: axes 1Full study and its 1 verse →
2 Samuel 12:31 David brought out the people who were there and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes, and he made them work at the brick kilns. He did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.
- מְגֵרָה megêrâhsawtranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H4050Noun · Translated: saws 3, axes 1Full study and all 3 verses →
1 Chronicles 20:3 David brought out the people who were there and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. And he did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.
- חֶרֶב cherebswordtranslated this way 1 time of its 405 uses · Strong’s H2719Noun · Translated: sword 357, swords 27, knives 3, war 2Full study and all 368 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀξίνη axínēan axetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G513Noun · Translated: axe 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 3:10 The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
Luke 3:9 The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
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.