Word study

Foam

2 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: foaming, foam, foams. 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 “foam” 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)

  • חָמַר châmarferment, boil or foam uptranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H2560Verb  ·  Translated: churning 2, coated 1, red 1, foam 1

    Psalm 46:3 though their waters roar and foam and the mountains quake in the surge. Selah

    Psalm 75:8 For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • קַל qallight, swift, fleettranslated this way 1 time of its 13 uses · Strong’s H7031Adjective  ·  Translated: swift 6, fleet 2, swiftly 2, foam 1

    Job 24:18 They are but foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one turns toward their vineyards.

    Full study and all 13 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἀφρίζω aphrízōI foam at the mouthtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G875Verb  ·  Translated: foams at the mouth 1, foaming at the mouth 1

    Mark 9:18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable.”

    Mark 9:20 So they brought him, and seeing Jesus, the spirit immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • ἐπαφρίζω epaphrízōI foam outtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G1890Verb  ·  Translated: foaming 1

    Jude 1:13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • ἀφρός aphrósfoam, frothtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G876Noun  ·  Translated: foams at the mouth 1

    Luke 9:39 A spirit keeps seizing him, and he screams abruptly. It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It keeps mauling him and rarely departs from him.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
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.