Word study

Company

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • קָהָל qâhâlassembly, convocation, congregationtranslated this way 8 times of its 119 uses · Strong’s H6951Noun  ·  Translated: assembly 94, company 7, horde 3, mob 3

    Genesis 28:3 May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples.

    Ezekiel 26:7 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with cavalry and a great company of troops.

    Full study and all 116 verses →
  • רֹאשׁ rôshheadtranslated this way 7 times of its 570 uses · Strong’s H7218Noun  ·  Translated: head 200, heads 113, chief 31, top 29

    Judges 7:16 And he divided the three hundred men into three companies and gave each man a ram’s horn in one hand and a large jar in the other, containing a torch.

    Judges 7:20 The three companies blew their horns and shattered their jars. Holding the torches in their left hands and the horns in their right hands, they shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!”

    Full study and all 530 verses →
  • מַחֲנֶה machănehencampment, camptranslated this way 2 times of its 206 uses · Strong’s H4264Noun  ·  Translated: camp 146, army 21, camps 12, armies 3

    Genesis 33:8 “What do you mean by sending this whole company to meet me?” asked Esau. “To find favor in your sight, my lord,” Jacob answered.

    Full study and all 186 verses →
  • עֵדָה êdâhcongregationtranslated this way 2 times of its 145 uses · Strong’s H5712Noun  ·  Translated: congregation 112, assembly 15, followers 8, company 2

    Job 15:34 For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of bribery.

    Psalm 106:18 Then fire blazed through their company; flames consumed the wicked.

    Full study and all 137 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • σπεῖρα speîraa cohorttranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G4686Noun  ·  Translated: Regiment 3, company 2, band of soldiers 2

    Matthew 27:27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company around Him.

    Mark 15:16 Then the soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called the whole company together.

    Full study and all 7 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.

What the Bible says about company: passages by topic →

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.