Word study
Devices
3 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “devices”. 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 “devices” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מוֹעֵצָה môêtsâhcounsel, plan, principle, devicetranslated this way 3 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H4156Noun · Translated: devices 3, counsel 2, inclinations 1, plans 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Psalm 5:10 Declare them guilty, O God; let them fall by their own devices. Drive them out for their many transgressions, for they have rebelled against You.
Proverbs 1:31 So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- חִשָּׁבוֹן chishshâbôndevice, inventiontranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H2810Noun · Translated: devices 1, schemes 1Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Chronicles 26:15 And in Jerusalem he made skillfully designed devices to shoot arrows and catapult large stones from the towers and corners. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was helped tremendously until he became powerful.
- מַחֲשָׁבָה machăshâbâhthought, devicetranslated this way 1 time of its 52 uses · Strong’s H4284Noun · Translated: thoughts 15, plans 10, artistic 3, schemes 3Full study and all 48 verses →
Psalm 33:10 The LORD frustrates the plans of the nations; He thwarts the devices of the peoples.
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.