Word study
Gleam
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: gleam, gleaming, gleamed. 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 “gleam” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עַיִן ayineyetranslated this way 7 times of its 764 uses · Strong’s H5869Noun · Translated: eyes 383, sight 186, eye 38, presence 13Full study and all 731 verses →
- בָּרָק bârâqlightningtranslated this way 1 time of its 21 uses · Strong’s H1300Noun · Translated: lightning 10, flash like lightning 3, like lightning 2, shining 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Job 20:25 It is drawn out of his back, the gleaming point from his liver. Terrors come over him.
- נָצַץ nâtsatsshine, sparkletranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H5340Verb · Translated: gleaming 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Ezekiel 1:7 Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, gleaming like polished bronze.
- צוּץ tsûtsblossomtranslated this way 1 time of its 9 uses · Strong’s H6692Verb · Translated: flourish 2Full study and all 9 verses →
Psalm 132:18 I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown upon him will gleam.”
- אוֹר ôrlighttranslated this way 1 time of its 119 uses · Strong’s H216Noun · Translated: light 86, lightning 5, dawn 3, daylight 3Full study and all 108 verses →
Proverbs 4:18 The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὅρασις hórasisa sight, vision, appearancetranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s G3706Noun · Translated: visions 1, looked 1, gleamed 1, vision 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Revelation 4:3 The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne.
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.