Word study
Descent
4 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “descent”. 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 “descent” 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)
- מוֹרָד môrâddescent, slopetranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H4174Noun · Translated: slopes 1, along the descent 1, beveled 1, descent 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Joshua 10:11 As they fled before Israel along the descent from Beth-horon to Azekah, the LORD cast down on them large hailstones from the sky, and more of them were killed by the hailstones than by the swords of the Israelites.
Jeremiah 48:5 For on the ascent to Luhith they weep bitterly as they go, and on the descent to Horonaim cries of distress resound over the destruction:
- זֶרַע zerasowing, seed, offspringtranslated this way 2 times of its 220 uses · Strong’s H2233Noun · Translated: descendants 78, offspring 45, seed 34, children 10Full study and all 201 verses →
Nehemiah 9:2 Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
Daniel 9:1 In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes, a Mede by descent, who was made ruler over the kingdom of the Chaldeans —
- עֵרֶב êrebmixture, mixed companytranslated this way 1 time of its 15 uses · Strong’s H6154Noun · Translated: knit 9, mixed tribes 2, mixed 1, foreign descent 1Full study and all 15 verses →
Nehemiah 13:3 As soon as the people heard this law, they excluded from Israel all of foreign descent.
- יָרַד yâradcome or go down, descendtranslated this way 1 time of its 372 uses · Strong’s H3381Verb · Translated: went 56, go 55, come 35, came 26Full study and all 341 verses →
Psalm 30:9 “What gain is there in my bloodshed, in my descent to the Pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it proclaim Your faithfulness?
Greek words (New Testament)
- κατάβασις katábasisdescenttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2600Noun · Translated: descent 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Luke 19:37 And as He approached the descent from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of disciples began to praise God joyfully in a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen:
- γενεαλογέω genealogéōI put into a genealogy, reckon my descenttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G1075Verb · Translated: trace his descent 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Hebrews 7:6 But Melchizedek, who did not trace his descent from Levi, collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
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.