Word study
Country
4 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: country, countries. 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 “country” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- הַר harmountain, hill, hill-countrytranslated this way 84 times of its 530 uses · Strong’s H2022Noun · Translated: mountains 140, mountain 130, Mount 124, hill country 82Full study and all 480 verses →
Genesis 10:30 Their territory extended from Mesha to Sephar, in the eastern hill country.
Numbers 13:17 When Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, he told them, “Go up through the Negev and into the hill country.
- אֶרֶץ eretsearth, landtranslated this way 36 times of its 2,375 uses · Strong’s H776Noun · Translated: land 1,483, earth 564, ground 119, lands 41Full study and all 2,120 verses →
Genesis 12:1 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.
Exodus 1:10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase even more; and if a war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”
- שָׂדֶה sâdehid.translated this way 12 times of its 317 uses · Strong’s H7704Noun · Translated: field 185, fields 55, land 19, wild 13Full study and all 299 verses →
Genesis 32:3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
Deuteronomy 22:25 But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die.
- גְּבוּל gebûlborder, boundary, territorytranslated this way 3 times of its 209 uses · Strong’s H1366Noun · Translated: border 76, territory 55, borders 15, boundary 9Full study and all 185 verses →
Exodus 8:2 But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.
Psalm 105:31 He spoke, and insects swarmed— gnats throughout their country.
Greek words (New Testament)
- χώρα chṓraregion, land, fieldstranslated this way 7 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s G5561Noun · Translated: region 10, country 7, land 3, fields 2Full study and all 26 verses →
Matthew 2:12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they withdrew to their country by another route.
Luke 15:13 After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living.
- ἀγρός agrósa field, the countrytranslated this way 3 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s G68Noun · Translated: field 22, fields 5, countryside 4, country 3Full study and all 34 verses →
Mark 15:21 Now Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and the soldiers forced him to carry the cross of Jesus.
Luke 23:26 As the soldiers led Him away, they seized Simon of Cyrene on his way in from the country, and they put the cross on him to carry behind Jesus.
- ὀρεινός oreinósmountainous, hillytranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G3714Adjective · Translated: hill country 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Luke 1:39 In those days Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah,
Luke 1:65 All their neighbors were filled with awe, and people throughout the hill country of Judea were talking about these events.
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 country: 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.