Word study

Encircle

5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: encircled, encircle, encircling, encircles. 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 “encircle” 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)

  • סָבִיב sâbîbcircuit, round abouttranslated this way 3 times of its 295 uses · Strong’s H5439Adverb  ·  Translated: around 151, side 31, surrounding 29, sides 16

    1 Kings 7:20 On the capitals of both pillars, just above the rounded projection next to the network, were the two hundred pomegranates in rows encircling each capital.

    2 Chronicles 4:3 Below the rim, figures of oxen encircled it, ten per cubit all the way around the Sea, cast in two rows as a part of the Sea.

    Full study and all 268 verses →
  • נָקַף nâqaphstrike offtranslated this way 2 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H5362Verb  ·  Translated: surround 3, circling 2, way 2, surrounded 2

    Psalm 22:16 For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.

    Psalm 48:12 March around Zion, encircle her, count her towers,

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • סוּג sûgfence abouttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H5473Verb  ·  Translated: encircled 1

    Song of Solomon 7:2 Your navel is a rounded goblet; it never lacks blended wine. Your waist is a mound of wheat encircled by the lilies.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • כָּתַר kâtharsurroundtranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s H3803Verb  ·  Translated: surrounded 1, Bear 1, encircle 1, gather around 1

    Psalm 22:12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • סָבַב sâbabturn about, go around, surroundtranslated this way 1 time of its 153 uses · Strong’s H5437Verb  ·  Translated: turned 16, surrounded 13, surround 10, turn 8

    Psalm 55:10 Day and night they encircle the walls, while malice and trouble lie within.

    Full study and all 144 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κύκλῳ kýklōia circletranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s G2945Adverb  ·  Translated: around 4, surrounding 2, circle 1, encircling 1

    Revelation 5:11 Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels encircling the throne, and the living creatures and the elders. And their number was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.

    Full study and all 8 verses →
  • κυκλόθεν kyklóthenin a circle roundtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s G2943Preposition  ·  Translated: encircled 1, Surrounding 1, around 1

    Revelation 4:3 The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne.

    Full study and all 3 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.

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.