Word study

Fat

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • חֶלֶב chelebfattranslated this way 74 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s H2459Noun  ·  Translated: fat 63, fat portions 5, finest 3, best part 2

    Genesis 45:18 Then bring your father and your families and return to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat from the fat of the land.’

    Exodus 23:18 You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened, nor may the fat of My feast remain until morning.

    Full study and all 69 verses →
  • אַלְיָה alyâhfat tailtranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H451Noun  ·  Translated: fat tail 5

    Exodus 29:22 Take the fat from the ram, the fat tail, the fat covering the entrails, the lobe of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh (since this is a ram for ordination),

    Leviticus 3:9 And from the peace offering he shall bring a food offering to the LORD consisting of its fat: the entire fat tail cut off close to the backbone, the fat that covers the entrails, all the fat that is on them,

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • שָׁמַן shâmangrow fattranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H8080Verb  ·  Translated: grew fat 2, becoming fat 1, calloused 1, grown fat 1

    Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked— becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation.

    Nehemiah 9:25 They captured fortified cities and fertile land and took houses full of all goods, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled; they grew fat and delighted in Your great goodness.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • פֶּדֶר pedersuettranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6309Noun  ·  Translated: fat 3

    Leviticus 1:8 Then Aaron’s sons the priests are to arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, atop the burning wood on the altar.

    Leviticus 1:12 He is to cut the animal into pieces, and the priest shall arrange them, including the head and fat, atop the burning wood that is on the altar.

    Full study and all 3 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.

What the Bible says about fat: 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.