Word study
Formation
5 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “formation”. 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 “formation” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מִלְחָמָה milchâmâhbattle, wartranslated this way 4 times of its 298 uses · Strong’s H4421Noun · Translated: battle 135, war 96, fight 11, army 5Full study and all 289 verses →
2 Chronicles 13:3 Abijah went into battle with an army of 400,000 chosen men, while Jeroboam drew up in formation against him with 800,000 chosen and mighty men of valor.
Jeremiah 6:23 They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Zion.”
- מַעֲרָכָה maărâkâhrow, rank, battle-linetranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H4634Noun · Translated: armies 4, battle line 2, battle 2, ranks 2Full study and all 15 verses →
1 Samuel 17:21 And Israel and the Philistines arrayed in formation against each other.
- חָצַץ châtsatschop, pierce, severtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H2686Verb · Translated: singers 1, run 1, formation 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Proverbs 30:27 the locusts have no king, yet they all advance in formation;
- עָרַךְ ârakarrange or set in ordertranslated this way 1 time of its 75 uses · Strong’s H6186Verb · Translated: arrayed 14, prepared 5, compare 5, set 4Full study and all 71 verses →
Jeremiah 50:14 Line up in formation around Babylon, all you who draw the bow! Shoot at her! Spare no arrows! For she has sinned against the LORD.
- דֶּרֶךְ derekway, road, distance, journey, mannertranslated this way 1 time of its 653 uses · Strong’s H1870Noun · Translated: way 204, ways 166, road 54, journey 35Full study and all 595 verses →
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.