Word study
Eye
4 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: eyes, eye. 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 “eye” 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)
- עַיִן ayineyetranslated this way 428 times of its 764 uses · Strong’s H5869Noun · Translated: eyes 383, sight 186, eye 38, presence 13Full study and all 731 verses →
Genesis 3:5 “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Exodus 15:26 saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
- עַיִן ayineyetranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H5870Noun · Translated: eyes 2, eye 1, looked 1, like 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Ezra 5:5 But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, so that they were not stopped until a report was sent to Darius and written instructions about this matter were returned.
Daniel 7:8 While I was contemplating the horns, suddenly another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like those of a man and a mouth that spoke words of arrogance.
- פָּנִים pânîmface, beforetranslated this way 2 times of its 1,836 uses · Strong’s H6440Noun · Translated: before 448, face 222, presence 147, before you 123Full study and all 1,671 verses →
- עַפְעַף aphapheyelidtranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H6079Noun · Translated: eyelids 3, eyes 2, breaking 1, like the rays 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Job 16:16 My face is red with weeping, and deep shadows ring my eyes;
Proverbs 6:25 Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὀφθαλμός ophthalmósthe eyetranslated this way 93 times of its 95 uses · Strong’s G3788Noun · Translated: eyes 68, eye 25, envy 1, sight 1Full study and all 80 verses →
Matthew 5:29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Mark 8:18 ‘Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear?’ And do you not remember?
- ἐνώπιον enṓpionbefore the face of, in the presence oftranslated this way 3 times of its 85 uses · Strong’s G1799Preposition · Translated: before 44, sight 11, presence 10, front 5Full study and all 79 verses →
Romans 12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody.
2 Corinthians 8:21 For we are taking great care to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men.
- μονόφθαλμος monóphthalmosone-eyedtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G3442Adjective · Translated: eye 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 18:9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
Mark 9:47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,
- τρύπημα trýpēmaa hole, the eye of a needletranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G5169Noun · Translated: eye 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 19:24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Luke 18:25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
- ὄμμα ómmaan eyetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G3659Noun · Translated: eyes 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 20:34 Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes, and at once they received their sight and followed Him.
Mark 8:23 So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then He spit on the man’s eyes and placed His hands on him. “Can you see anything?” He asked.
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.
What the Bible says about eye: 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.