Word study
Dirt
3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “dirt”. 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 “dirt” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עָפָר âphârdry earth, dusttranslated this way 3 times of its 110 uses · Strong’s H6083Noun · Translated: dust 73, soil 6, like dust 5, like the dust 3Full study and all 103 verses →
Genesis 26:15 So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.
Leviticus 17:13 And if any Israelite or foreigner living among them hunts down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten, he must drain its blood and cover it with dirt.
- אֲדָמָה ădâmâhground, landtranslated this way 1 time of its 220 uses · Strong’s H127Noun · Translated: land 121, ground 38, earth 34, soil 12Full study and all 207 verses →
1 Samuel 4:12 That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line all the way to Shiloh, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.
- טִיט ṭîṭmud, mire, claytranslated this way 1 time of its 13 uses · Strong’s H2916Noun · Translated: like mud 3, mud 3, clay 3, mire 2Full study and all 12 verses →
Zechariah 9:3 Tyre has built herself a fortress; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ῥύπος rhýposfilth, dirttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4509Noun · Translated: dirt 1Full study and its 1 verse →
1 Peter 3:21 And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also — not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
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.