Word study
Bread
4 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “bread”. 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 “bread” 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)
- לֶחֶם lechembread, foodtranslated this way 156 times of its 277 uses · Strong’s H3899Noun · Translated: bread 150, food 98, meal 6, showbread 4Full study and all 260 verses →
Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground — because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Exodus 16:3 “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”
- מַצָּה matstsâhunleavened bread, or cake(s)translated this way 39 times of its 53 uses · Strong’s H4682Noun · Translated: unleavened bread 37, unleavened 11, without leaven 2, along with unleavened bread 1Full study and all 42 verses →
Genesis 19:3 But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Exodus 12:8 They are to eat the meat that night, roasted over the fire, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
- עֻגָּה uggâhdisc or cake of breadtranslated this way 3 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H5692Noun · Translated: cake of bread 2, cake 2, bread 1, loaves 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Genesis 18:6 So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Prepare three seahs of fine flour, knead it, and bake some bread.”
1 Kings 17:13 “Do not be afraid,” Elijah said to her. “Go and do as you have said. But first make me a small cake of bread from what you have, and bring it out to me. Afterward, make some for yourself and your son,
- חָמֵץ châmêtsthat which is leavenedtranslated this way 2 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s H2557Noun · Translated: leavened 4, anything leavened 3, leaven 3, leavened bread 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Deuteronomy 16:3 You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste— so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.
Amos 4:5 Offer leavened bread as a thank offering, and loudly proclaim your freewill offerings. For that is what you children of Israel love to do,” declares the Lord GOD.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἄρτος ártosbread, a loaf, foodtranslated this way 65 times of its 90 uses · Strong’s G740Noun · Translated: bread 60, loaves 20, consecrated bread 3, loaf 3Full study and all 82 verses →
Matthew 4:3 The tempter came to Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Mark 2:26 During the high priesthood of Abiathar, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which was lawful only for the priests. And he gave some to his companions as well.”
- ἄζυμος ázymosunleavened, the paschal feast, uncorruptedtranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G106Adjective · Translated: Unleavened 4, Feast of Unleavened 3, Unleavened Bread 2Full study and all 9 verses →
Mark 14:1 Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were two days away, and the chief priests and scribes were looking for a covert way to arrest Jesus and kill Him.
Acts 20:6 And after the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we sailed from Philippi, and five days later we rejoined them in Troas, where we stayed seven days.
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 bread: 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.