Word study
Enclose
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: enclosed, enclose. 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 “enclose” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- סָכַךְ sâkakovershadow, screen, covertranslated this way 1 time of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5526Verb · Translated: overshadowing 2, cover 2, overshadowed 2, knit me together 2Full study and all 24 verses →
Job 38:8 Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,
- נָעַל nâalbar, bolt, locktranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H5274Verb · Translated: locked 2Full study and all 7 verses →
Song of Solomon 4:12 My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.
- קָטַר qâṭarshut in, enclosetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H7000Noun · Translated: enclosed 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Ezekiel 46:22 In the four corners of the outer court there were enclosed courts, each forty cubits long and thirty cubits wide. Each of the four corner areas had the same dimensions.
- נָקַף nâqaphstrike offtranslated this way 1 time of its 19 uses · Strong’s H5362Verb · Translated: surround 3, circling 2, way 2, surrounded 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Psalm 88:17 All day long they engulf me like water; they enclose me on every side.
- צוּר tsûrconfine, bind, besiegetranslated this way 1 time of its 38 uses · Strong’s H6696Verb · Translated: besieged 10, besiege 7, besieging 4, lay siege 3Full study and all 38 verses →
Song of Solomon 8:9 If she is a wall, we will build a tower of silver upon her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar.
- גָּדַר gâdarwall up or off, build a walltranslated this way 1 time of its 10 uses · Strong’s H1443Verb · Translated: masons 2, repair 2Full study and all 10 verses →
Hosea 2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.
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.