Word study
Flood
7 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: flood, floods, flooding. 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 “flood” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מַבּוּל mabbûlfloodtranslated this way 10 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H3999Noun · Translated: flood 10, floodwaters 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Genesis 7:7 And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
Psalm 29:10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever.
- מַיִם mayimwater, juice, urinetranslated this way 5 times of its 533 uses · Strong’s H4325Noun · Translated: water 298, waters 176, like water 15, flood 3Full study and all 497 verses →
2 Samuel 5:20 So David went to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, the LORD has burst out against my enemies before me.” So he called that place Baal-perazim.
1 Chronicles 14:11 So David and his men went up to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, God has burst out against my enemies by my hand.” So they called that place Baal-perazim.
- שֶׁטֶף sheṭephfloodtranslated this way 5 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H7858Noun · Translated: flood 3, waters 1, like a flood 1, come like a flood 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Job 38:25 Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,
Proverbs 27:4 Wrath is cruel and anger is like a flood, but who can withstand jealousy?
- שָׁטַף shâṭaphoverflow, rinse or wash offtranslated this way 3 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H7857Verb · Translated: rinsed 3, torrents 3, overflowing 2, like a flood 2Full study and all 29 verses →
Isaiah 28:17 I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place.
Daniel 11:10 But his sons will stir up strife and assemble a great army, which will advance forcefully, sweeping through like a flood, and will again carry the battle as far as his fortress.
- שִׁפְעָה shiphâhabundance, quantitytranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H8229Noun · Translated: flood 2, troops 1, company 1, Caravans 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Job 22:11 it is so dark you cannot see, and a flood of water covers you.
Job 38:34 Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?
- נָהָר nâhârstream, rivertranslated this way 2 times of its 114 uses · Strong’s H5104Noun · Translated: River 34, Euphrates 24, rivers 24, streams 6Full study and all 108 verses →
Job 22:16 They were snatched away before their time, and their foundations were swept away by a flood.
Isaiah 59:19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD where the sun sets, and His glory where it rises. For He will come like a raging flood, driven by the breath of the LORD.
- שִׁבֹּל shibbôlstream, ear of grain, branchtranslated this way 2 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7641Noun · Translated: heads of grain 10, ones 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Psalm 69:2 I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.
Psalm 69:15 Do not let the floods engulf me or the depths swallow me up; let not the Pit close its mouth over me.
Greek words (New Testament)
- κατακλυσμός kataklysmósa deluge, floodtranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G2627Noun · Translated: flood 4Full study and all 4 verses →
Matthew 24:38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.
Luke 17:27 People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
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.
What the Bible says about flood: 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.