Word study

Cattle

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “cattle”. 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 “cattle” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • בָּקָר bâqârcattle, herd, oxtranslated this way 25 times of its 142 uses · Strong’s H1241Noun  ·  Translated: oxen 49, herds 32, cattle 25, herd 12

    Genesis 12:16 He treated Abram well on her account, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, menservants and maidservants, and camels.

    Exodus 20:24 You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

    Full study and all 135 verses →
  • בְּהֵמָה behêmâhbeast, animal, cattletranslated this way 11 times of its 186 uses · Strong’s H929Noun  ·  Translated: livestock 45, beast 43, animal 32, animals 21

    Exodus 11:5 and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the hand mill, as well as the firstborn of all the cattle.

    Joshua 8:27 Israel took for themselves only the cattle and plunder of that city, as the LORD had commanded Joshua.

    Full study and all 171 verses →
  • מִקְנֶה miqnehcattletranslated this way 6 times of its 69 uses · Strong’s H4735Noun  ·  Translated: livestock 45, cattle 5, flocks 3, herds 3

    2 Kings 3:17 For the LORD says, ‘You will not see wind or rain, but the valley will be filled with water, and you will drink— you and your cattle and your animals.’

    1 Chronicles 28:1 Now David summoned all the leaders of Israel to Jerusalem: the leaders of the tribes, the leaders of the divisions in the king’s service, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officials in charge of all the property and cattle of the king and his sons, along with the court officials and mighty men— every mighty man of valor.

    Full study and all 61 verses →
  • שׁוֹר shôrhead of cattletranslated this way 2 times of its 77 uses · Strong’s H7794Noun  ·  Translated: ox 57, oxen 11, bull 3, cattle 2

    Exodus 22:30 You shall do likewise with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but on the eighth day you are to give them to Me.

    Exodus 34:19 The first offspring of every womb belongs to Me, including all the firstborn males among your livestock, whether cattle or sheep.

    Full study and all 68 verses →
  • מְרִיא merîfatling, fatlingstranslated this way 2 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H4806Noun  ·  Translated: fattened calves 3, fattened calf 1, well-fed cattle 1, fatling 1

    Isaiah 1:11 “What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

    Amos 5:22 Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.

    Full study and all 8 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • βοῦς boûsan oxtranslated this way 2 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G1016Noun  ·  Translated: ox 4, oxen 2, cattle 2

    John 2:14 In the temple courts He found men selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and money changers seated at their tables.

    John 2:15 So He made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle. He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

    Full study and all 7 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 cattle: 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.