Word study
Camp
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: camp, camped, camps, camping. 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 “camp” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מַחֲנֶה machănehencampment, camptranslated this way 165 times of its 206 uses · Strong’s H4264Noun · Translated: camp 146, army 21, camps 12, armies 3Full study and all 186 verses →
Genesis 32:2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.
Exodus 14:19 And the angel of God, who had gone before the camp of Israel, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from before them and stood behind them,
- חָנָה chânâhdecline, bend down, encamptranslated this way 109 times of its 141 uses · Strong’s H2583Verb · Translated: camped 90, camp 18, encamped 11, laid siege 4Full study and all 135 verses →
Genesis 33:18 After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.
Exodus 13:20 They set out from Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness.
- לוּן lûnlodge, pass the nighttranslated this way 3 times of its 80 uses · Strong’s H3885Verb · Translated: spend the night 17, spent the night 7, grumbled 7, remain 6Full study and all 76 verses →
Joshua 3:1 Early the next morning Joshua got up and left Shittim with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan, where they camped before crossing over.
Nehemiah 13:20 Once or twice, the merchants and those who sell all kinds of goods camped outside Jerusalem,
- נָסַע nâsapull out or up, set out, journeytranslated this way 3 times of its 146 uses · Strong’s H5265Verb · Translated: set 91, journeyed 4, moved 4, pulled 4Full study and all 139 verses →
Joshua 3:14 So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them.
2 Kings 19:36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.
- מַעְגָּל magâlentrenchmenttranslated this way 3 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H4570Noun · Translated: paths 5, path 4, ways 2, tracks 2Full study and all 16 verses →
1 Samuel 17:20 So David got up early in the morning, left the flock with a keeper, loaded up, and set out as Jesse had instructed him. He reached the camp as the army was marching out to its position and shouting the battle cry.
1 Samuel 26:5 Then David set out and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the general of his army, had lain down. Saul was lying inside the inner circle of the camp, with the troops camped around him.
- קָצֶה qâtsehend, extremitytranslated this way 2 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s H7097Noun · Translated: end 25, ends 14, edge 9, outskirts 6Full study and all 81 verses →
Numbers 22:41 The next morning, Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamoth-baal. From there he could see the outskirts of the camp of the people.
Numbers 23:13 Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp — not all of them. And from there, curse them for me.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- παρεμβολή parembolḗa camp, barracks, army in battle arraytranslated this way 3 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G3925Noun · Translated: barracks 6, camp 3, armies 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Hebrews 13:11 Although the high priest brings the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, the bodies are burned outside the camp.
Revelation 20:9 And they marched across the broad expanse of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them.
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 camp: 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.