Word study
Dedicate
5 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: dedicated, dedicate. 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 “dedicate” 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 12 times of its 169 uses · Strong’s H6942Verb · Translated: consecrate 40, consecrated 33, dedicated 10, sanctifies 8Full study and all 151 verses →
Judges 17:3 And when he had returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, she said, “I wholly dedicate the silver to the LORD for my son’s benefit, to make a graven image and a molten idol. Therefore I will now return it to you.”
2 Samuel 8:11 and King David dedicated these to the LORD, along with the silver and gold he had dedicated from all the nations he had subdued—
- קֹדֶשׁ qôdeshsacred, sanctitytranslated this way 8 times of its 437 uses · Strong’s H6944Noun · Translated: holy 192, sanctuary 42, sacred 31, according to the sanctuary 24Full study and all 379 verses →
1 Kings 7:51 So all the work that King Solomon had performed for the house of the LORD was completed. Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated— the silver, the gold, and the furnishings— and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 26:20 Now their fellow Levites were in charge of the treasuries of the house of God and the treasuries of the dedicated things.
- חָנַךְ chânaktrain up, dedicatetranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H2596Verb · Translated: dedicated 3, dedicate 1, Train 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Deuteronomy 20:5 Furthermore, the officers are to address the army, saying, “Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man dedicate it.
1 Kings 8:63 And Solomon offered as peace offerings to the LORD 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the Israelites dedicated the house of the LORD.
- נָתַן nâthangive, put, settranslated this way 3 times of its 1,957 uses · Strong’s H5414Verb · Translated: give 326, gave 206, given 187, put 135Full study and all 1,785 verses →
Numbers 18:6 Behold, I Myself have selected your fellow Levites from the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to perform the service for the Tent of Meeting.
- שָׁאַל shâalask, inquiretranslated this way 3 times of its 165 uses · Strong’s H7592Verb · Translated: ask 31, asked 28, inquired 16, requested 7Full study and all 156 verses →
1 Samuel 1:28 I now dedicate the boy to the LORD. For as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the LORD.” So they worshiped the LORD there.
1 Samuel 2:20 And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the LORD give you children by this woman in place of the one she dedicated to the LORD.” Then they would go home.
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.
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.