Word study
Channel
5 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: channels, channeled, channel. 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 “channel” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- אָפִיק âphîqchanneltranslated this way 3 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H650Noun · Translated: ravines 7, streams 4, channels 3Full study and all 19 verses →
2 Samuel 22:16 The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
Psalm 18:15 The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.
- תְּעָלָה teâlâhwater-coursetranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H8585Noun · Translated: trench 3, aqueduct 3Full study and all 11 verses →
Job 38:25 Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,
Ezekiel 31:4 The waters made it grow; the deep springs made it tall, directing their streams all around its base and sending their channels to all the trees of the field.
- מָקוֹם mâqômstanding, spot, conditiontranslated this way 1 time of its 381 uses · Strong’s H4725Noun · Translated: place 279, home 16, places 11, wherever 7Full study and all 364 verses →
Job 6:17 but ceasing in the dry season and vanishing from their channels in the heat.
- יְאֹר yeôrstreamtranslated this way 1 time of its 62 uses · Strong’s H2975Noun · Translated: Nile 26, river 10, streams 8, like the nile 6Full study and all 48 verses →
Job 28:10 He hews out channels in the rocks, and his eyes spot every treasure.
- יָשַׁר yâsharbe smooth, straight, righttranslated this way 1 time of its 25 uses · Strong’s H3474Verb · Translated: pleased 4, make 3, please 2, pleasing 2Full study and all 25 verses →
2 Chronicles 32:30 It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Spring of Gihon and channeled it down to the west side of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did.
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.