Word study

Bull

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: bull, bulls. 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 “bull” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • פַּר paryoung bull, steertranslated this way 126 times of its 129 uses · Strong’s H6499Noun  ·  Translated: bull 64, bulls 36, young bull 10, bull's 8

    Genesis 32:15 30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.

    Exodus 24:5 Then he sent out some young men of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the LORD.

    Full study and all 118 verses →
  • בָּקָר bâqârcattle, herd, oxtranslated this way 13 times of its 142 uses · Strong’s H1241Noun  ·  Translated: oxen 49, herds 32, cattle 25, herd 12

    Leviticus 1:5 And he shall slaughter the young bull before the LORD, and Aaron’s sons the priests are to present the blood and splatter it on all sides of the altar at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

    Numbers 15:8 When you prepare a young bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice to fulfill a vow or as a peace offering to the LORD,

    Full study and all 135 verses →
  • שׁוֹר shôrhead of cattletranslated this way 5 times of its 77 uses · Strong’s H7794Noun  ·  Translated: ox 57, oxen 11, bull 3, cattle 2

    Numbers 15:11 This is to be done for each bull, ram, lamb, or goat.

    Deuteronomy 18:3 This shall be the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether a bull or a sheep: the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach.

    Full study and all 68 verses →
  • תּוֹר tôrbullocktranslated this way 3 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H8450Noun  ·  Translated: like an ox 4, bulls 2, many bulls 1

    Ezra 6:9 Whatever is needed— young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem— must be given to them daily without fail.

    Ezra 6:17 For the dedication of the house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and a sin offering for all Israel of twelve male goats, one for each tribe of Israel.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • אַבִּיר abbîrmighty, valianttranslated this way 2 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H47Adjective  ·  Translated: stallions 2, mighty 2, strong 2, bulls 2

    Psalm 50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

    Psalm 68:30 Rebuke the beast in the reeds, the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations, until it submits, bringing bars of silver. Scatter the nations who delight in war.

    Full study and all 17 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ταῦρος taûrosa bull, an oxtranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G5022Noun  ·  Translated: bulls 3, oxen 1

    Acts 14:13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates, hoping to offer a sacrifice along with the crowds.

    Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,

    Full study and all 4 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.

What the Bible says about bull: 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.