Word study
Feast
6 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: feast, feasts, feasting, feasted. 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 “Feast” 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)
- חַג chagfestival-gathering, feast, pilgrim-feasttranslated this way 57 times of its 62 uses · Strong’s H2282Noun · Translated: Feast 49, feasts 6, festivals 2Full study and all 55 verses →
Exodus 10:9 “We will go with our young and old,” Moses replied. “We will go with our sons and daughters, and with our flocks and herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD.”
Leviticus 23:6 On the fifteenth day of the same month begins the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread.
- מִשְׁתֶּה mishtehfeasttranslated this way 26 times of its 42 uses · Strong’s H4960Noun · Translated: feast 15, banquet 10, feasting 8, drink 3Full study and all 40 verses →
Genesis 19:3 But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
Judges 14:10 Then his father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as was customary for the bridegroom.
- מוֹעֵד môêdappointed time, place, meetingtranslated this way 26 times of its 223 uses · Strong’s H4150Noun · Translated: Meeting 146, appointed feasts 20, appointed time 14, time 9Full study and all 213 verses →
Leviticus 23:2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘These are My appointed feasts, the feasts of the LORD that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
Numbers 10:10 And on your joyous occasions, your appointed feasts, and the beginning of each month, you are to blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and peace offerings to serve as a reminder for you before your God. I am the LORD your God.”
- אָכַל âkaleattranslated this way 5 times of its 784 uses · Strong’s H398Verb · Translated: eat 341, ate 64, eaten 63, consumed 39Full study and all 696 verses →
Deuteronomy 14:26 Then you may spend the money on anything you desire: cattle, sheep, wine, strong drink, or anything you wish. You are to feast there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice with your household.
- חָגַג châgagmake pilgrimage, keep a pilgrim-feasttranslated this way 3 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H2287Verb · Translated: celebrate 8, celebrate a feast 2Full study and all 14 verses →
Exodus 5:1 After that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’”
Deuteronomy 16:15 For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.
- זֶבַח zebachsacrificetranslated this way 2 times of its 121 uses · Strong’s H2077Noun · Translated: sacrifices 55, sacrifice 49, offerings 6, other sacrifices 5Full study and all 114 verses →
Proverbs 17:1 Better a dry morsel in quietness than a house full of feasting with strife.
Ezekiel 39:17 And as for you, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: Call out to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great feast on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἑορτή heortḗa festival, feasttranslated this way 24 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s G1859Noun · Translated: feast 24Full study and all 23 verses →
Matthew 26:5 “But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
Mark 14:2 “But not during the feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.”
- ἄζυμος ázymosunleavened, the paschal feast, uncorruptedtranslated this way 3 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G106Adjective · Translated: Unleavened 4, Feast of Unleavened 3, Unleavened Bread 2Full study and all 9 verses →
Matthew 26:17 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”
Mark 14:12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”
- φάγω phágōI eattranslated this way 2 times of its 92 uses · Strong’s G5315Verb · Translated: eat 61, ate 16, eaten 3, food 2Full study and all 86 verses →
Luke 14:15 When one of those reclining with Him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is everyone who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
Luke 15:23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us feast and celebrate.
- συνευωχέω syneuōchéōI feast sumptuously withtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G4910Verb · Translated: feast 1, feasting 1Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Peter 2:13 The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.
Jude 1:12 These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
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.
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.