Word study

Earth

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “earth”. 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 “earth” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אֶרֶץ eretsearth, landtranslated this way 573 times of its 2,375 uses · Strong’s H776Noun  ·  Translated: land 1,483, earth 564, ground 119, lands 41

    Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

    Exodus 8:16 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Tell Aaron, ‘Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may turn into swarms of gnats throughout the land of Egypt.’”

    Full study and all 2,120 verses →
  • אֲדָמָה ădâmâhground, landtranslated this way 34 times of its 220 uses · Strong’s H127Noun  ·  Translated: land 121, ground 38, earth 34, soil 12

    Genesis 1:25 God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

    Exodus 20:24 You are to make for Me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep and goats and cattle. In every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you.

    Full study and all 207 verses →
  • אֲרַע ăraearthtranslated this way 15 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H772Noun  ·  Translated: earth 15, ground 3, land 2, inferior 1

    Ezra 5:11 And this is the answer they returned: “We are servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the temple that was built many years ago, which a great king of Israel built and completed.

    Jeremiah 10:11 Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”

    Full study and all 17 verses →
  • 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 3

    Job 19:25 But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.

    Job 28:2 Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore.

    Full study and all 103 verses →
  • תֵּבֵל têbêlworldtranslated this way 3 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s H8398Noun  ·  Translated: world 29, earth 3, inhabited world 1, of all 1

    Psalm 89:11 The heavens are Yours, and also the earth. The earth and its fullness You founded.

    Proverbs 8:26 before He made the land or fields, or any of the dust of the earth.

    Full study and all 35 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • γῆ gēthe earth, soil, landtranslated this way 156 times of its 238 uses · Strong’s G1093Noun  ·  Translated: earth 156, land 37, ground 19, soil 13

    Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

    Mark 2:10 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” He said to the paralytic,

    Full study and all 217 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.

What the Bible says about earth: 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.