Word study

Envoy

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מַלְאָךְ malâkmessengertranslated this way 8 times of its 212 uses · Strong’s H4397Noun  ·  Translated: angel 95, messengers 65, messenger 23, angels 9

    2 Samuel 5:11 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs, carpenters, and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David.

    2 Kings 17:4 But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.

    Full study and all 197 verses →
  • צִיר tsîrenvoy, messengertranslated this way 4 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H6735Noun  ·  Translated: envoy 3, pain 2

    Proverbs 13:17 A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful envoy brings healing.

    Isaiah 57:9 You went to Molech with oil and multiplied your perfumes. You have sent your envoys a great distance; you have descended even to Sheol itself.

    Full study and all 11 verses →
  • צָיַר tsâyarenvoy, messengertranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H6737Verb  ·  Translated: envoys 1

    Joshua 9:4 acted deceptively and set out as envoys, carrying on their donkeys worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • עֶבֶד ebedslave, servanttranslated this way 1 time of its 793 uses · Strong’s H5650Noun  ·  Translated: servant 327, servants 282, officials 31, slaves 24Full study and all 712 verses →
  • חַשְׁמַן chashmanwealthytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H2831Noun  ·  Translated: Envoys 1

    Psalm 68:31 Envoys will arrive from Egypt; Cush will stretch out her hands to God.

    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.

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.