Word study

Generation

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • דּוֹר dôrperiod, generation, dwellingtranslated this way 123 times of its 150 uses · Strong’s H1755Noun  ·  Translated: generation 53, generations to come 30, generations 28, descendants 5

    Genesis 6:9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.

    Exodus 1:6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,

    Full study and all 124 verses →
  • דָּר dârgenerationtranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H1859Noun  ·  Translated: generation 4

    Daniel 4:3 How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation.

    Daniel 4:34 But at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity was restored to me. Then I praised the Most High, and I honored and glorified Him who lives forever: “For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • תּוֹלְדָה tôledâhdescent, family, historytranslated this way 3 times of its 39 uses · Strong’s H8435Noun  ·  Translated: according to the records 12, account 11, genealogies 3, generations 2

    Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness.

    Ruth 4:18 Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron,

    Full study and all 39 verses →
  • רְבִיעִי rebîîfourthtranslated this way 2 times of its 56 uses · Strong’s H7243Number  ·  Translated: fourth 42, quarter 8, four generations 2

    2 Kings 10:30 Nevertheless, the LORD said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in carrying out what is right in My sight and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel.”

    2 Kings 15:12 So the word of the LORD spoken to Jehu was fulfilled: “Four generations of your sons will sit on the throne of Israel.”

    Full study and all 54 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • γενεά geneáa generationtranslated this way 36 times of its 39 uses · Strong’s G1074Noun  ·  Translated: generation 30, generations 6, kind 1, descendants 1

    Matthew 1:17 In all, then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.

    Mark 8:12 Jesus sighed deeply in His spirit and said, “Why does this generation demand a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

    Full study and all 37 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.