Word study

Forehead

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: forehead, foreheads. 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 “forehead” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מֵצַח mêtsachbrow, foreheadtranslated this way 11 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H4696Noun  ·  Translated: forehead 9, foreheads 2, brazen look 1

    Exodus 28:38 And it will be worn on Aaron’s forehead, so that he may bear the iniquity of the holy things that the sons of Israel consecrate with regard to all their holy gifts. It shall always be on his forehead, so that they may be acceptable before the LORD.

    1 Samuel 17:49 Then David reached into his bag, took out a stone, and slung it, striking the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • בֵּין bêninterval, space betweentranslated this way 5 times of its 296 uses · Strong’s H996Preposition  ·  Translated: between 108, and 30, among 23, at 13

    Exodus 13:9 It shall be a sign for you on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the Law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For with a mighty hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt.

    Deuteronomy 6:8 Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

    Full study and all 230 verses →
  • גַּבַּחַת gabbachathbald foreheadtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H1372Noun  ·  Translated: forehead 2, front 1

    Leviticus 13:42 But if there is a reddish-white sore on the bald head or forehead, it is an infectious disease breaking out on it.

    Leviticus 13:43 The priest is to examine him, and if the swelling of the infection on his bald head or forehead is reddish-white like a skin disease,

    Full study and all 3 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • μέτωπον métōponthe foreheadtranslated this way 8 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G3359Noun  ·  Translated: foreheads 5, forehead 3

    Revelation 7:3 “Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have placed a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”

    Revelation 9:4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

    Full study and all 8 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.