Word study
Chamber
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: chambers, chamber, chambered. 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 “chamber” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- לִשְׁכָּה lishkâhroom, chamber, hall, cell, lishkatranslated this way 34 times of its 45 uses · Strong’s H3957Noun · Translated: chambers 17, chamber 12, storerooms 5, rooms 3Full study and all 40 verses →
2 Kings 23:11 And he removed from the entrance to the house of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the chamber of an official named Nathan-melech. And Josiah burned up the chariots of the sun.
1 Chronicles 9:33 Those who were musicians, the heads of Levite families, stayed in the temple chambers and were exempt from other duties because they were on duty day and night.
- תָּא tâchambertranslated this way 10 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H8372Noun · Translated: gate chambers 8, gate chamber 2, of 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Ezekiel 40:7 Each gate chamber was one rod long and one rod wide, and there were five cubits between the gate chambers. The inner threshold of the gate by the portico facing inward was one rod deep.
Ezekiel 40:10 There were three gate chambers on each side of the east gate, each with the same measurements, and the gateposts on either side also had the same measurements.
- חֶדֶר chederchamber, roomtranslated this way 5 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s H2315Noun · Translated: bedroom 7, room 7, rooms 3, chambers 3Full study and all 32 verses →
Job 37:9 The tempest comes from its chamber, and the cold from the driving north winds.
Psalm 105:30 Their land teemed with frogs, even in their royal chambers.
- עֲלִיָּה ălîâhroof-chambertranslated this way 4 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s H5944Noun · Translated: upper room 9, upper rooms 4, chambers 2Full study and all 20 verses →
2 Samuel 18:33 The king was shaken and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
2 Kings 23:12 He pulled down the altars that the kings of Judah had set up on the roof near the upper chamber of Ahaz, and the altars that Manasseh had set up in the two courtyards of the house of the LORD. The king pulverized them there and threw their dust into the Kidron Valley.
- צְרִיחַ tserîachexcavation, underground chambertranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6877Noun · Translated: inner chamber 2, cellars 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Judges 9:46 On hearing of this, all the leaders in the tower of Shechem entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith.
Judges 9:49 So each man also cut his own branch and followed Abimelech. Then they piled the branches against the inner chamber and set it on fire above them, killing everyone in the tower of Shechem, about a thousand men and women.
- חֻפָּה chuppâhcanopy, chambertranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H2646Noun · Translated: chamber 2, canopy 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Psalm 19:5 Like a bridegroom emerging from his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course,
Joel 2:16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.
- יָצוּעַ yâtsûacouch, bedtranslated this way 2 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H3326Noun · Translated: bed 4, couch 1, chambered structure 1, floor 1Full study and all 8 verses →
1 Kings 6:5 Against the walls of the temple and the inner sanctuary, Solomon built a chambered structure around the temple, in which he constructed the side rooms.
1 Kings 6:10 He built chambers all along the temple, each five cubits high and attached to the temple with beams of cedar.
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.