Word study

Commander

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • שַׂר sarchieftain, chief, ruler, official, captain, princetranslated this way 114 times of its 401 uses · Strong’s H8269Noun  ·  Translated: commanders 74, officials 67, princes 63, commander 39

    Genesis 21:22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do.

    Numbers 31:14 But Moses was angry with the officers of the army — the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds — who were returning from the battle.

    Full study and all 366 verses →
  • קָצִין qâtsînchief, rulertranslated this way 5 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H7101Noun  ·  Translated: commander 4, rulers 4, leader 2, commanders 1

    Joshua 10:24 When they had brought the kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had accompanied him, “Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings.” So the commanders came forward and put their feet on their necks.

    Judges 11:6 “Come,” they said, “be our commander, so that we can fight against the Ammonites.”

    Full study and all 12 verses →
  • בְּעֵל beêlowner, lordtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H1169Noun  ·  Translated: commander 3

    Ezra 4:8 Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote the letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows:

    Ezra 4:9 From Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates— the judges and officials over Tripolis, Persia, Erech and Babylon, the Elamites of Susa,

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • סָגָן sâgânprefect, rulertranslated this way 3 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H5461Noun  ·  Translated: officials 13, commanders 3, rulers 1

    Ezekiel 23:6 clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all desirable young men, horsemen mounted on steeds.

    Ezekiel 23:12 She too lusted after the Assyrians — governors and commanders, warriors dressed in splendor, horsemen riding on steeds, all desirable young men.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • רֹאשׁ rôshheadtranslated this way 2 times of its 570 uses · Strong’s H7218Noun  ·  Translated: head 200, heads 113, chief 31, top 29Full study and all 530 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • χιλίαρχος chilíarchosa military tribunetranslated this way 21 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s G5506Noun  ·  Translated: commander 17, commanders 3, military commanders 1

    Mark 6:21 On Herod’s birthday, her opportunity arose. Herod held a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.

    John 18:12 Then the band of soldiers, with its commander and the officers of the Jews, arrested Jesus and bound Him.

    Full study and all 21 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.