Word study

Dungeon

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • בּוֹר bôrpit, cistern, welltranslated this way 2 times of its 62 uses · Strong’s H953Noun  ·  Translated: Pit 34, cistern 14, well 6, dungeon 2

    Genesis 40:15 For I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing for which they should have put me in this dungeon.”

    Genesis 41:14 So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, who was quickly brought out of the dungeon. After he had shaved and changed his clothes, he went in before Pharaoh.

    Full study and all 59 verses →
  • בַּיִת bayithhousetranslated this way 2 times of its 1,913 uses · Strong’s H1004Noun  ·  Translated: house 1,132, temple 176, palace 117, household 93

    Exodus 12:29 Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.

    Full study and all 1,624 verses →
  • מַסְגֵּר masgêrlocksmith, smithtranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H4525Noun  ·  Translated: metalsmiths 4, dungeon 2, prison 1

    Isaiah 24:22 They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days.

    Isaiah 42:7 to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • שַׁחַת shachathpittranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s H7845Noun  ·  Translated: pit 18, decay 2, corruption 1, destruction 1

    Isaiah 51:14 The captive will soon be freed; he will not die in the dungeon, and his bread will not be lacking.

    Full study and all 23 verses →
  • חָנוּת chânûthcelltranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H2588Noun  ·  Translated: dungeon 1

    Jeremiah 37:16 So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time.

    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.

What the Bible says about dungeon: passages by topic →

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.