Word study

Clan

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מִשְׁפָּחָה mishpâchâhclantranslated this way 247 times of its 285 uses · Strong’s H4940Noun  ·  Translated: clans 135, clan 100, families 17, family 12

    Genesis 10:5 From these, the maritime peoples separated into their territories, according to their languages, by clans within their nations.

    Exodus 6:14 These were the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, were Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. These were the clans of Reuben.

    Full study and all 217 verses →
  • אֶלֶף elephthousandtranslated this way 9 times of its 233 uses · Strong’s H505Number  ·  Translated: thousand 116, thousands 33, two thousand 10, clans 8

    Numbers 1:16 These men were appointed from the congregation; they were the leaders of the tribes of their fathers, the heads of the clans of Israel.

    Joshua 22:14 With him they sent ten chiefs — one family leader from each tribe of Israel, each the head of a family among the clans of Israel.

    Full study and all 201 verses →
  • פְּלֻגָּה peluggâhdivisiontranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6391Noun  ·  Translated: clans 2, divisions 1

    Judges 5:15 The princes of Issachar were with Deborah, and Issachar was with Barak, rushing into the valley at his heels. In the clans of Reuben there was great indecision.

    Judges 5:16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds to hear the whistling for the flocks? In the clans of Reuben there was great indecision.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • אַלּוּף allûphtametranslated this way 2 times of its 31 uses · Strong’s H441Noun  ·  Translated: chiefs 18, companion 2

    Zechariah 9:7 I will remove the blood from their mouths and the abominations from between their teeth. Then they too will become a remnant for our God; they will become like a clan in Judah, and Ekron will be like the Jebusites.

    Zechariah 12:6 On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there.

    Full study and all 25 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.