Word study
Bird
6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: birds, bird. 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 “bird” 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)
- עוֹף ôphflying creatures, fowl, insectstranslated this way 66 times of its 71 uses · Strong’s H5775Noun · Translated: birds 46, bird 16, flying 4Full study and all 70 verses →
Genesis 1:20 And God said, “Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.”
Leviticus 1:14 If, instead, one’s offering to the LORD is a burnt offering of birds, he is to present a turtledove or a young pigeon.
- צִפּוֹר tsippôrbirdtranslated this way 35 times of its 39 uses · Strong’s H6833Noun · Translated: bird 14, birds 10, like a bird 7, bird's 2Full study and all 36 verses →
Genesis 15:10 So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.
Leviticus 14:4 the priest shall order that two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop be brought for the one to be cleansed.
- עַיִט ayiṭbird(s) of preytranslated this way 6 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H5861Noun · Translated: bird of prey 3, birds of prey 2, birds 1, with 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Genesis 15:11 And the birds of prey descended on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
Job 28:7 No bird of prey knows that path; no falcon’s eye has seen it.
- צְפַר tsepharbirdtranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H6853Noun · Translated: birds 3, like 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Daniel 4:12 Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit was abundant, and upon it was food for all. Under it the beasts of the field found shelter, in its branches the birds of the air nested, and from it every creature was fed.
Daniel 4:14 He called out in a loud voice: ‘Cut down the tree and chop off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it, and the birds from its branches.
- פָּרַח pârachbud, sprout, shoottranslated this way 2 times of its 33 uses · Strong’s H6524Verb · Translated: flourish 6, budded 3, broken 3, sprout 3Full study and all 32 verses →
Ezekiel 13:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: See, I am against the magic charms with which you ensnare souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms. So I will free the souls you have ensnared like birds.
- עוֹף ôphfowltranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H5776Noun · Translated: birds 1, bird 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Daniel 2:38 Wherever the sons of men or beasts of the field or birds of the air dwell, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
Daniel 7:6 Next, as I watched, suddenly another beast appeared. It was like a leopard, and on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and it was given authority to rule.
Greek words (New Testament)
- πετεινόν peteinóna birdtranslated this way 14 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G4071Noun · Translated: birds 14Full study and all 14 verses →
Matthew 6:26 Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Mark 4:4 And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
- ὄρνεον órneona birdtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G3732Noun · Translated: birds 2, bird 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Revelation 18:2 And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable beast.
Revelation 19:17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,
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.