Word study

Charm

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • לַחַשׁ lachasha whispering, charmingtranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H3908Noun  ·  Translated: charmed 2, enchanter 1, charms 1, quiet prayer 1

    Ecclesiastes 10:11 If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.

    Isaiah 3:20 their headdresses, ankle chains, and sashes; their perfume bottles and charms;

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • חֵן chênfavour, gracetranslated this way 2 times of its 66 uses · Strong’s H2580Noun  ·  Translated: favor 48, grace 9, gracious 3, charm 2

    Proverbs 17:8 A bribe is a charm to its giver; wherever he turns, he succeeds.

    Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

    Full study and all 64 verses →
  • כֶּסֶת kesethband, fillettranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H3704Noun  ·  Translated: magic charms 2

    Ezekiel 13:18 and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their wrists and make veils for the heads of people of every height, in order to ensnare their souls. Will you ensnare the souls of My people but preserve your own?

    Ezekiel 13:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: See, I am against the magic charms with which you ensnare souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms. So I will free the souls you have ensnared like birds.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • שַׁחַר shachardawntranslated this way 1 time of its 20 uses · Strong’s H7837Noun  ·  Translated: dawn 13, like the dawn 2

    Isaiah 47:11 But disaster will come upon you; you will not know how to charm it away. A calamity will befall you that you will be unable to ward off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly.

    Full study and all 20 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.

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.