Word study
Floor
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: floor, floors. 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 “floor” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- גֹּרֶן gôrenthreshing-floortranslated this way 35 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H1637Noun · Translated: threshing floor 32, threshing floors 2, throat 1, like a threshing floor 1Full study and all 36 verses →
Genesis 50:10 When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.
Numbers 15:20 From the first of your dough, you are to lift up a cake as a contribution; offer it just like an offering from the threshing floor.
- קַרְקַע qarqafloortranslated this way 6 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H7172Noun · Translated: floor 6, ceiling 1, bottom 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Numbers 5:17 Then he is to take some holy water in a clay jar and put some of the dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.
1 Kings 6:15 He lined the interior walls with cedar paneling from the floor of the temple to the ceiling, and he covered the floor with cypress boards.
- תִּיכוֹן tîkônmiddletranslated this way 3 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H8484Adjective · Translated: middle 3, central 2, middle floors 2, middle floor 1Full study and all 9 verses →
1 Kings 6:6 The bottom floor was five cubits wide, the middle floor six cubits, and the third floor seven cubits. He also placed offset ledges around the outside of the temple, so that nothing would be inserted into its walls.
Ezekiel 42:5 Now the upper chambers were smaller because the galleries took more space from the chambers on the lower and middle floors of the building.
- פָּנִים pânîmface, beforetranslated this way 2 times of its 1,836 uses · Strong’s H6440Noun · Translated: before 448, face 222, presence 147, before you 123Full study and all 1,671 verses →
Exodus 16:14 When the layer of dew had evaporated, there were thin flakes on the desert floor, as fine as frost on the ground.
- אֶרֶץ eretsearth, landtranslated this way 2 times of its 2,375 uses · Strong’s H776Noun · Translated: land 1,483, earth 564, ground 119, lands 41Full study and all 2,120 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἅλων hálōna threshing-floortranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G257Noun · Translated: threshing floor 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Luke 3:17 His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
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.