Word study

Consecrate

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: consecrated, consecrate, consecrates, consecrating. 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 “consecrate” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • קָדַשׁ qâdashbe set apart, consecratedtranslated this way 80 times of its 169 uses · Strong’s H6942Verb  ·  Translated: consecrate 40, consecrated 33, dedicated 10, sanctifies 8

    Exodus 13:2 “Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The firstborn from every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, both of man and beast.”

    Leviticus 8:10 Next, Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it; and so he consecrated them.

    Full study and all 151 verses →
  • קֹדֶשׁ qôdeshsacred, sanctitytranslated this way 9 times of its 437 uses · Strong’s H6944Noun  ·  Translated: holy 192, sanctuary 42, sacred 31, according to the sanctuary 24

    Leviticus 19:24 In the fourth year all its fruit must be consecrated as a praise offering to the LORD.

    1 Samuel 21:4 “There is no common bread on hand,” the priest replied, “but there is some consecrated bread — provided that the young men have kept themselves from women.”

    Full study and all 379 verses →
  • מָלֵא mâlêbe full, filltranslated this way 4 times of its 242 uses · Strong’s H4390Verb  ·  Translated: filled 66, full 34, fill 31, complete 8

    1 Chronicles 29:5 for the gold work and the silver work, and for all the work to be done by the craftsmen. Now who is willing to consecrate himself to the LORD today?”

    2 Chronicles 13:9 But did you not drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And did you not make priests for yourselves as do the peoples of other lands? Now whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of things that are not gods.

    Full study and all 235 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἄρτος ártosbread, a loaf, foodtranslated this way 3 times of its 90 uses · Strong’s G740Noun  ·  Translated: bread 60, loaves 20, consecrated bread 3, loaf 3

    Matthew 12:4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for them to eat, but only for the priests.

    Mark 2:26 During the high priesthood of Abiathar, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which was lawful only for the priests. And he gave some to his companions as well.”

    Full study and all 82 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.