Word study

Farmer

2 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: farmer, farmers. 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 “farmer” 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)

  • אִכָּר ikkârploughman, husbandmantranslated this way 6 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H406Noun  ·  Translated: farmers 4, farmer 2, plowmen 1

    2 Chronicles 26:10 Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields.

    Jeremiah 14:4 The ground is cracked because no rain has fallen on the land. The farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • נָטַע nâṭastrike, fix, planttranslated this way 1 time of its 57 uses · Strong’s H5193Verb  ·  Translated: plant 28, planted 15, plants 2, establish 2

    Jeremiah 31:5 Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant and enjoy the fruit.

    Full study and all 55 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • σπείρω speírōI sow, spread, scattertranslated this way 4 times of its 52 uses · Strong’s G4687Verb  ·  Translated: sown 18, sows 9, sow 8, farmer 4

    Matthew 13:3 And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed.

    Mark 4:3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.

    Full study and all 42 verses →
  • γεωργός geōrgósa worker of the soil, husbandman, vine-dressertranslated this way 2 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s G1092Noun  ·  Translated: tenants 12, to 3, farmer 2, keeper of the vineyard 1

    2 Timothy 2:6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to partake of the crops.

    James 5:7 Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil — how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.

    Full study and all 17 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.