Word study

Court

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • חָצֵר châtsêrenclosure, courttranslated this way 66 times of its 184 uses · Strong’s H2691Noun  ·  Translated: courtyard 61, court 43, villages 28, along with their villages 19

    1 Chronicles 23:28 but their duty was to assist the descendants of Aaron with the service of the house of the LORD, being responsible for the courts and chambers, the purification of all the holy things, and the work of the service of the house of God,

    Nehemiah 8:16 And the people went out, brought back branches, and made booths on their own rooftops, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God, and in the squares by the Water Gate and by the Gate of Ephraim.

    Full study and all 161 verses →
  • סָרִיס sârîseunuchtranslated this way 8 times of its 41 uses · Strong’s H5631Noun  ·  Translated: eunuchs 13, officials 6, official 6, court officials 5

    2 Kings 25:19 Of those still in the city, he took a court official who had been appointed over the men of war, as well as five royal advisors. He also took the scribe of the captain of the army, who had enlisted the people of the land, and sixty men who were found in the city.

    1 Chronicles 28:1 Now David summoned all the leaders of Israel to Jerusalem: the leaders of the tribes, the leaders of the divisions in the king’s service, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officials in charge of all the property and cattle of the king and his sons, along with the court officials and mighty men— every mighty man of valor.

    Full study and all 41 verses →
  • פַּרְבָּר ParbârParbar, Parvartranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6503Noun  ·  Translated: court 3

    2 Kings 23:11 And he removed from the entrance to the house of the LORD the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the chamber of an official named Nathan-melech. And Josiah burned up the chariots of the sun.

    1 Chronicles 26:18 As for the court on the west, there were four at the highway and two at the court.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • מִשְׁפָּט mishpâṭjudgmenttranslated this way 2 times of its 406 uses · Strong’s H4941Noun  ·  Translated: justice 111, ordinances 73, judgments 40, judgment 40

    Deuteronomy 25:1 If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned.

    Job 9:32 For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court.

    Full study and all 394 verses →
  • דִּין dînjudgementtranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H1780Noun  ·  Translated: judgment 2, court 2, are just 1

    Daniel 7:10 A river of fire was flowing, coming out from His presence. Thousands upon thousands attended Him, and myriads upon myriads stood before Him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.

    Daniel 7:26 But the court will convene, and his dominion will be taken away and completely destroyed forever.

    Full study and all 5 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 court: 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.