Word study

Depth

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • תְּהוֹם tehômdeep, sea, abysstranslated this way 15 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H8415Noun  ·  Translated: deep 16, depths 9, watery depths 3, ocean depths 2

    Genesis 49:25 by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb.

    Exodus 15:5 The depths have covered them; they sank there like a stone.

    Full study and all 35 verses →
  • תַּחְתִּי tachtîlower, lowesttranslated this way 9 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H8482Noun  ·  Translated: depths 9, lower 4, below 3, lowest 2

    Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

    Psalm 63:9 But those who seek my life to destroy it will go into the depths of the earth.

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • מְצוֹלָה metsôlâhdepth, deeptranslated this way 8 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H4688Noun  ·  Translated: depths 7, deep 2, makes the depths 1

    Nehemiah 9:11 You divided the sea before them, and they crossed through it on dry ground. You hurled their pursuers into the depths like a stone into raging waters.

    Job 41:31 He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron; he makes the sea like a jar of ointment.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • מַעֲמָק maămâqdeeptranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H4615Noun  ·  Translated: depths 3, deep 2

    Psalm 130:1 A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!

    Isaiah 51:10 Was it not You who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea for the redeemed to cross over?

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • יְרֵכָה yerêkâhflank, sidetranslated this way 2 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s H3411Noun  ·  Translated: rear 4, ends 3, far 3, two back 2

    Isaiah 14:15 But you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.

    Ezekiel 32:23 Her graves are set in the depths of the Pit, and her company is all around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword— those who once spread terror in the land of the living.

    Full study and all 28 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • βάθος báthosdepth, a depth, a deeptranslated this way 3 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G899Noun  ·  Translated: deep 3, depth 3, shallow 1

    Romans 8:39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    Ephesians 3:18 will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth

    Full study and all 7 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.

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.