Word study
Counsel
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: counsel, counseled, counsels. 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 “counsel” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עֵצָה êtsâhcounsel, advicetranslated this way 36 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s H6098Noun · Translated: counsel 33, advice 11, plans 11, plan 6Full study and all 84 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:28 Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them.
2 Samuel 15:31 Now someone told David: “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” So David pleaded, “O LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness!”
- יָעַץ yâatsadvise, counseltranslated this way 6 times of its 75 uses · Strong’s H3289Verb · Translated: counselor 11, counselors 9, advise 6, consulted 5Full study and all 69 verses →
2 Chronicles 25:17 Then Amaziah king of Judah took counsel and sent word to the king of Israel Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu. “Come, let us meet face to face,” he said.
Job 26:3 How you have counseled the unwise and provided fully sound insight!
- שָׁאַל shâalask, inquiretranslated this way 2 times of its 165 uses · Strong’s H7592Verb · Translated: ask 31, asked 28, inquired 16, requested 7Full study and all 156 verses →
Numbers 27:21 He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who will seek counsel for him before the LORD by the judgment of the Urim. At his command, he and all the Israelites with him— the entire congregation— will go out and come in.”
2 Samuel 20:18 Then the woman said, “Long ago they used to say, ‘Seek counsel at Abel,’ and that is how disputes were settled.
- דָּבָר dâbârspeech, wordtranslated this way 2 times of its 1,244 uses · Strong’s H1697Noun · Translated: word 342, words 299, acts 51, Chronicles 42Full study and all 1,120 verses →
Numbers 31:16 “Look, these women caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to turn unfaithfully against the LORD at Peor, so that the plague struck the congregation of the LORD.
- תַּחְבֻּלָה tachbulâhdirection, counseltranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H8458Noun · Translated: sound guidance 2, direction 1, wise counsel 1, guidance 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Proverbs 1:5 let the wise listen and gain instruction, and the discerning acquire wise counsel
Proverbs 12:5 The plans of the righteous are just, but the counsel of the wicked leads to deceit.
- מוֹעֵצָה môêtsâhcounsel, plan, principle, devicetranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H4156Noun · Translated: devices 3, counsel 2, inclinations 1, plans 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Proverbs 22:20 Have I not written for you thirty sayings about counsel and knowledge,
Micah 6:16 You have kept the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their counsel. Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants an object of contempt; you will bear the scorn of the nations.”
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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 counsel: 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.