Word study

Foliage

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “foliage”. 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 “foliage” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עָלֶה âlehleaf, leafagetranslated this way 1 time of its 14 uses · Strong’s H5929Noun  ·  Translated: leaves 6, leaf 4, branches 1, like foliage 1

    Proverbs 11:28 He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like foliage.

    Full study and all 13 verses →
  • נָבֵל nâbêlbe senseless, foolishtranslated this way 1 time of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5034Verb  ·  Translated: wither 4, fall 3, lose heart 2, fading 2

    Isaiah 34:4 All the stars of heaven will be dissolved. The skies will be rolled up like a scroll, and all their stars will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like foliage from the fig tree.

    Full study and all 21 verses →
  • טָרָף ṭârâphfresh-pluckedtranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H2965Adjective  ·  Translated: freshly plucked 1, foliage 1

    Ezekiel 17:9 So you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Will it flourish? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it shrivels? All its foliage will wither! It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by its roots.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • דָּלִיָּה dâlîâhdangling, boughtranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H1808Noun  ·  Translated: branches 6, foliage 1, limbs 1

    Ezekiel 19:11 It had strong branches, fit for a ruler’s scepter. It towered high above the thick branches, conspicuous for its height and for its dense foliage.

    Full study and all 8 verses →
  • עֳפִי ŏphîleafage, foliagetranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6074Noun  ·  Translated: leaves 2, foliage 1

    Daniel 4:21 whose foliage was beautiful and whose fruit was abundant, providing food for all, under which the beasts of the field lived, and in whose branches the birds of the air nested—

    Full study and all 3 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.