Word study
Build
8 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: built, build, building, builds, buildings. 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 “build” 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)
- בָּנָה bânâhbuildtranslated this way 266 times of its 368 uses · Strong’s H1129Verb · Translated: built 132, build 98, rebuilt 34, rebuild 19Full study and all 342 verses →
Genesis 4:17 And Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Then Cain built a city and named it after his son Enoch.
Exodus 1:11 So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
- עָשָׂה âsâhdo, maketranslated this way 20 times of its 2,478 uses · Strong’s H6213Verb · Translated: done 292, made 265, make 143, did 112Full study and all 2,206 verses →
Genesis 6:15 And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.
Exodus 27:1 “You are to build an altar of acacia wood. The altar must be square, five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high.
- שָׁפַךְ shâphakpour out, pourtranslated this way 8 times of its 112 uses · Strong’s H8210Verb · Translated: pour 35, shed 26, poured 19, build 6Full study and all 108 verses →
2 Samuel 20:15 And Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel-beth-maacah and built a siege ramp against the outer rampart of the city. As all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to topple it,
2 Kings 19:32 So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow into it. He will not come before it with a shield or build up a siege ramp against it.
- בַּיִת bayithhousetranslated this way 6 times of its 1,913 uses · Strong’s H1004Noun · Translated: house 1,132, temple 176, palace 117, household 93Full study and all 1,624 verses →
- בְּנָא benâbuildtranslated this way 5 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H1124Verb · Translated: rebuild 6, rebuilt 5, rebuilding 4, built 4Full study and all 19 verses →
Ezra 5:11 And this is the answer they returned: “We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed.
Daniel 4:30 the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”
- סָלַל sâlallift up, cast uptranslated this way 5 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H5549Verb · Translated: build 5, highway 2Full study and all 10 verses →
Job 30:12 The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.
Isaiah 57:14 And it will be said, “Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, take every obstacle out of the way of My people.”
- בִּנְיָן binyânstructuretranslated this way 5 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H1146Noun · Translated: building 5, the 2Full study and all 6 verses →
Ezekiel 41:12 Now the building that faced the temple courtyard on the west was seventy cubits wide, and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, with a length of ninety cubits.
Ezekiel 41:15 Next he measured the length of the building facing the temple courtyard at the rear of the temple, including its galleries on each side; it was a hundred cubits. The outer sanctuary, the inner sanctuary, and the porticoes facing the court,
- קוּם qûmarise, stand up, standtranslated this way 2 times of its 594 uses · Strong’s H6965Verb · Translated: rise 68, got 61, set 44, Get 42Full study and all 570 verses →
2 Samuel 24:18 And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
1 Chronicles 21:18 Then the angel of the LORD ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
Greek words (New Testament)
- οἰκοδομέω oikodoméōI build, build up, edifytranslated this way 26 times of its 41 uses · Strong’s G3618Verb · Translated: build 12, built 9, builders 5, rebuild 4Full study and all 39 verses →
Matthew 7:24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Mark 12:1 Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
- οἰκοδομή oikodomḗthe act of building, a building, edificationtranslated this way 15 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s G3619Noun · Translated: building 6, build 5, buildings 3, edification 2Full study and all 18 verses →
Matthew 24:1 As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, His disciples came up to Him to point out its buildings.
Mark 13:1 As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, look at the magnificent stones and buildings!”
- ἐποικοδομέω epoikodoméōI build upon a foundationtranslated this way 7 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G2026Verb · Translated: built 3, building 2, builds 2Full study and all 6 verses →
1 Corinthians 3:10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one must be careful how he builds.
Ephesians 2:20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone.
- κατασκευάζω kataskeuázōI build, prepare, maketranslated this way 3 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G2680Verb · Translated: prepare 3, prepared 3, built 3, builder 2Full study and all 10 verses →
Hebrews 3:4 And every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.
1 Peter 3:20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water.
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.