Word study
Foot
10 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: feet, foot, footing. 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 “foot” 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)
- רֶגֶל regelfoottranslated this way 180 times of its 213 uses · Strong’s H7272Noun · Translated: feet 128, foot 45, legs 8, times 4Full study and all 203 verses →
Genesis 18:4 Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.
Exodus 12:11 This is how you are to eat it: You must be fully dressed for travel, with your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You are to eat in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover.
- רַגְלִי raglîon foottranslated this way 10 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H7273Adjective · Translated: foot soldiers 6, foot 3, men on foot 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Exodus 12:37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.
Numbers 11:21 But Moses replied, “Here I am among 600,000 men on foot, yet You say, ‘I will give them meat, and they will eat for a month.’
- פַּעַם paambeat, foot, anvil, occurrencetranslated this way 9 times of its 105 uses · Strong’s H6471Noun · Translated: times 42, time 15, feet 9, twice 6Full study and all 102 verses →
Exodus 25:12 Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, two rings on one side and two on the other.
2 Kings 19:24 I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”
- כַּף kaphhollow, or flat of the hand, palm, sole of foot, pantranslated this way 5 times of its 176 uses · Strong’s H3709Noun · Translated: hands 70, hand 32, dish 12, palm 9Full study and all 170 verses →
Genesis 8:9 But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark.
Joshua 3:13 When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD — the Lord of all the earth — touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
- רְגַל regalfoottranslated this way 5 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H7271Noun · Translated: feet 4, underfoot 2, two feet 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Daniel 2:33 its legs were iron, and its feet were part iron and part clay.
Daniel 2:34 As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them.
- מַרְגְלָה margelâhfootpiece, at the foot, foottranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H4772Noun · Translated: feet 4, legs 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Ruth 3:4 When he lies down, note the place where he lies. Then go in and uncover his feet, and lie down, and he will explain to you what you should do.”
Ruth 3:7 After Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then Ruth went in secretly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
- דָּרַךְ dâraktread, marchtranslated this way 3 times of its 61 uses · Strong’s H1869Verb · Translated: bent 5, treads 4, tread 4, bend 4Full study and all 59 verses →
Deuteronomy 1:36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land on which he has set foot, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.”
Joshua 14:9 On that day Moses swore to me, saying, ‘Surely the land on which you have set foot will be an inheritance to you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’
- תַּחַת tachaththe under parttranslated this way 3 times of its 465 uses · Strong’s H8478Preposition · Translated: place 126, under 106, for 34, beneath 29Full study and all 421 verses →
Joshua 11:3 to the Canaanites in the east and west; to the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, and Jebusites in the hill country; and to the Hivites at the foot of Hermon in the land of Mizpah.
Psalm 45:5 Your arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s foes; the nations fall beneath your feet.
- עָמַד âmadtake one's stand, standtranslated this way 3 times of its 508 uses · Strong’s H5975Verb · Translated: stood 99, stand 95, standing 50, stands 12Full study and all 485 verses →
Job 29:8 the young men saw me and withdrew, and the old men rose to their feet.
Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.
- אִישׁ îshmantranslated this way 2 times of its 1,399 uses · Strong’s H376Noun · Translated: man 650, men 198, one 79, each 79Full study and all 1,278 verses →
2 Samuel 8:4 David captured from him a thousand chariots, seven thousand charioteers, and twenty thousand foot soldiers, and he hamstrung all the horses except a hundred he kept for the chariots.
Greek words (New Testament)
- πούς poústhe foottranslated this way 86 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s G4228Noun · Translated: feet 79, foot 7, legs 1Full study and all 82 verses →
Matthew 4:6 “If You are the Son of God,” he said, “throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they will lift You up in their hands, so that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”
Mark 5:22 A synagogue leader named Jairus arrived, and seeing Jesus, he fell at His feet
- πεζῇ pezēion foottranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G3979Adverb · Translated: foot 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 14:13 When Jesus heard about John , He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. But the crowds found out about it and followed Him on foot from the towns.
Mark 6:33 But many people saw them leaving and recognized them. They ran together on foot from all the towns and arrived before them.
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 foot: 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.