Word study

Facedown

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אַף aphnostril, nose, face, angertranslated this way 15 times of its 243 uses · Strong’s H639Noun  ·  Translated: anger 165, facedown 14, nostrils 11, nose 10

    Genesis 19:1 Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown,

    Numbers 22:31 Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. And Balaam bowed low and fell facedown.

    Full study and all 238 verses →
  • עַל alheighttranslated this way 12 times of its 4,859 uses · Strong’s H5921Preposition  ·  Translated: on 777, over 297, in 218, against 216Full study and all 3,996 verses →
  • פָּנִים pânîmface, beforetranslated this way 7 times of its 1,836 uses · Strong’s H6440Noun  ·  Translated: before 448, face 222, presence 147, before you 123

    Numbers 14:5 Then Moses and Aaron fell facedown before the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel.

    Full study and all 1,671 verses →
  • נָפַל nâphalfall, lietranslated this way 5 times of its 432 uses · Strong’s H5307Verb  ·  Translated: fall 104, fell 77, fallen 54, falls 21

    Genesis 17:3 Then Abram fell facedown, and God said to him,

    Numbers 20:6 Then Moses and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. They fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them.

    Full study and all 403 verses →
  • אֵל êlmotion totranslated this way 3 times of its 4,199 uses · Strong’s H413Preposition  ·  Translated: to 1,941, to me 285, to you 149, to him 137Full study and all 3,455 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πρόσωπον prósōponthe face, countenance, surfacetranslated this way 4 times of its 56 uses · Strong’s G4383Noun  ·  Translated: face 25, presence 7, faces 6, facedown 4

    Matthew 26:39 Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”

    Luke 5:12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell facedown and begged Him, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

    Full study and all 52 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.