Word study

Blossom

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: blossoms, blossom, blossomed, blossoming. 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 “blossom” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • פֶּרַח perachbud, sprouttranslated this way 5 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H6525Noun  ·  Translated: petals 6, blossom 3, blossoms 2, flowers 2

    Numbers 8:4 This is how the lampstand was constructed: it was made of hammered gold from its base to its blossoms, fashioned according to the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.

    1 Kings 7:26 It was a handbreadth thick, and its rim was fashioned like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It could hold two thousand baths.

    Full study and all 15 verses →
  • שָׁקַד shâqadbe, make, almond-shapedtranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H8246Noun  ·  Translated: shaped like almond blossoms 4

    Exodus 25:33 There are to be three cups shaped like almond blossoms on the first branch, each with buds and petals, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches that extend from the lampstand.

    Exodus 25:34 And on the lampstand there shall be four cups shaped like almond blossoms with buds and petals.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • פָּרַח pârachbud, sprout, shoottranslated this way 3 times of its 33 uses · Strong’s H6524Verb  ·  Translated: flourish 6, budded 3, broken 3, sprout 3

    Isaiah 35:1 The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.

    Hosea 14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

    Full study and all 32 verses →
  • צוּץ tsûtsblossomtranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H6692Verb  ·  Translated: flourish 2

    Numbers 17:8 The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Testimony and saw that Aaron’s staff, representing the house of Levi, had sprouted, put forth buds, blossomed, and produced almonds.

    Isaiah 27:6 In the days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • סְמָדַר semâdarblossomtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H5563Noun  ·  Translated: blossoming 1, bloom 1, blossom 1

    Song of Solomon 2:13 The fig tree ripens its figs; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come away, my darling; come away with me, my beautiful one.”

    Song of Solomon 7:12 Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vine has budded, if the blossom has opened, if the pomegranates are in bloom — there I will give you my love.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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.