Word study

Dense

6 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “dense”. 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 “dense” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עָב âbdark cloud, cloud-mass, thickettranslated this way 1 time of its 30 uses · Strong’s H5645Noun  ·  Translated: clouds 18, cloud 3, like a cloud 3, thick clouds 2

    Exodus 19:9 The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you, and they will always put their trust in you.” And Moses relayed to the LORD what the people had said.

    Full study and all 30 verses →
  • כֹּבֶד kôbedheavinesstranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H3514Noun  ·  Translated: heavy 1, stress 1, dense 1, mounds 1

    Isaiah 30:27 Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense smoke. His lips are full of fury, and His tongue is like a consuming fire.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • מַאְפֵלְיָה maphêleyâhdeep darknesstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H3991Noun  ·  Translated: dense darkness 1

    Jeremiah 2:31 You people of this generation, consider the word of the LORD: “Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of dense darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam; we will come to You no more’?

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • לֹא lônottranslated this way 1 time of its 4,657 uses · Strong’s H3808Adverb  ·  Translated: no 309, not 269, never 218, will not 156Full study and all 3,775 verses →
  • רֹב rôbmultitude, abundance, greatnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 142 uses · Strong’s H7230Noun  ·  Translated: many 28, abundance 22, great 18, abundant 10

    Ezekiel 19:11 It had strong branches, fit for a ruler’s scepter. It towered high above the thick branches, conspicuous for its height and for its dense foliage.

    Full study and all 138 verses →
  • בָּצוֹר bâtsôrvintagetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H1208Noun  ·  Translated: dense 1

    Zechariah 11:2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen; the majestic trees are ruined! Wail, O oaks of Bashan, for the dense forest has been cut down!

    Full study and its 1 verse →
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.