Word study

Flock

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • צֹאן tsônsmall cattle, sheep and goats, flock, flockstranslated this way 146 times of its 259 uses · Strong’s H6629Noun  ·  Translated: sheep 89, flock 76, flocks 63, like sheep 8

    Genesis 4:4 while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock. And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

    Exodus 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.

    Full study and all 238 verses →
  • עֵדֶר êderflock, herdtranslated this way 27 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H5739Noun  ·  Translated: flocks 13, flock 8, like a flock 6, herds 6

    Genesis 29:2 He looked and saw a well in the field, and near it lay three flocks of sheep, because the sheep were watered from this well. And a large stone covered the mouth of the well.

    Judges 5:16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds to hear the whistling for the flocks? In the clans of Reuben there was great indecision.

    Full study and all 33 verses →
  • מִקְנֶה miqnehcattletranslated this way 4 times of its 69 uses · Strong’s H4735Noun  ·  Translated: livestock 45, cattle 5, flocks 3, herds 3

    Genesis 26:14 He owned so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.

    Numbers 31:9 The Israelites captured the Midianite women and their children, and they plundered all their herds, flocks, and goods.

    Full study and all 61 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ποίμνιον poímniona little flocktranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G4168Noun  ·  Translated: flock 5

    Luke 12:32 Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

    Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • ποίμνη poímnēa flocktranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G4167Noun  ·  Translated: flock 3, flocks 1

    Matthew 26:31 Then Jesus said to them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of Me. For it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’

    Luke 2:8 And there were shepherds residing in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks by night.

    Full study and all 4 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.