Word study
Flower
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: flowers, flower. 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 “flower” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- צִיץ tsîtsblossom, flower.translated this way 10 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H6731Noun · Translated: flowers 6, plate 3, Like a flower 2, flower 1Full study and all 14 verses →
1 Kings 6:18 The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen.
Job 14:2 Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
- פֶּרַח perachbud, sprouttranslated this way 3 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H6525Noun · Translated: petals 6, blossom 3, blossoms 2, flowers 2Full study and all 15 verses →
1 Kings 7:49 the lampstands of pure gold in front of the inner sanctuary, five on the right side and five on the left; the gold flowers, lamps, and tongs;
2 Chronicles 4:21 the flowers, lamps, and tongs of gold— of purest gold;
- נִצָּן nitstsânid.translated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H5339Noun · Translated: flowers 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Song of Solomon 2:12 The flowers have appeared in the countryside; the season of singing has come, and the cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land.
- נִצָּה nitstsâhblossomtranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H5328Noun · Translated: blossoms 1, flower 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Isaiah 18:5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife and remove and discard the branches.
- צִיצָה tsîtsâhflowertranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H6733Noun · Translated: flower 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Isaiah 28:4 The fading flower of his beautiful splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest: Whoever sees it will take it in his hand and swallow it.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἄνθος ánthosbloom, flowertranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G438Noun · Translated: flower 2, flowers 2Full study and all 3 verses →
James 1:10 But the one who is rich should exult in his low position, because he will pass away like a flower of the field.
1 Peter 1:24 For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
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.