Word study
Brier
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: briers, brier. 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 “brier” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׁמִיר shâmîrthorn(s), adamant, flinttranslated this way 7 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H8068Noun · Translated: briers 7, thistles 1, diamond 1, like a diamond 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Isaiah 5:6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”
Isaiah 7:23 And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.
- בַּרְקָן barqânthorntranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H1303Noun · Translated: briers 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Judges 8:7 “Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”
Judges 8:16 Then he took the elders of the city, and using the thorns and briers of the wilderness, he disciplined the men of Succoth.
- חוֹחַ chôachbrier, brambletranslated this way 2 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H2336Noun · Translated: thistle 4, briers 2, thorns 2Full study and all 10 verses →
Job 31:40 then let briers grow instead of wheat and stinkweed instead of barley.” Thus conclude the words of Job.
Isaiah 34:13 Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
- סָרָב sârâbrebel ?translated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H5621Noun · Translated: briers 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Ezekiel 2:6 But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.
- סַרְפָּד sarpâdnettle, burntranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H5636Noun · Translated: brier 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Isaiah 55:13 Instead of the thornbush, the cypress will grow, and instead of the brier, the myrtle will spring up; this will make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed.”
- סִלּוֹן sillônbriertranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H5544Noun · Translated: thorns 1, brier 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Ezekiel 28:24 For the people of Israel will no longer face a pricking brier or a painful thorn from all around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.’
- חֵדֶק chêdeqbriertranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H2312Noun · Translated: thorns 1, like a brier 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Micah 7:4 The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion.
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 brier: 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.