Word study
Goat
8 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: goat, goats. 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 “goat” 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)
- שָׂעִיר sâîrhe-goat, bucktranslated this way 55 times of its 58 uses · Strong’s H8163Noun · Translated: male goat 32, goat 10, goats 3, hairy 2Full study and all 57 verses →
Genesis 37:31 Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.
Leviticus 4:23 When he becomes aware of the sin he has committed, he must bring an unblemished male goat as his offering.
- עֵז êzshe-goattranslated this way 33 times of its 33 uses · Strong’s H5795Noun · Translated: goats 12, goat 10, goat hair 6, female goat 2Full study and all 33 verses →
Genesis 15:9 And the LORD said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.”
Exodus 12:5 Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats.
- עַתּוּד attûdhe-goattranslated this way 24 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s H6260Noun · Translated: male goats 14, goats 10, males 2, rulers 1Full study and all 29 verses →
Numbers 7:17 and a peace offering of two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nahshon son of Amminadab.
Deuteronomy 32:14 with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine.
- גְּדִי gedîkidtranslated this way 14 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H1423Noun · Translated: young goat 11, young goats 2, young 1, took 1Full study and all 16 verses →
Genesis 27:9 Go out to the flock and bring me two choice young goats, so that I can make them into a tasty dish for your father— the kind he loves.
Exodus 23:19 Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
- צָפִיר tsâphîrhe-goattranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6842Noun · Translated: male goats 2, goat 2, Thus the goat 1Full study and all 5 verses →
2 Chronicles 29:21 They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And the king commanded the priests, the descendants of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the LORD.
Ezra 8:35 Then the exiles who had returned from captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel: 12 bulls for all Israel, 96 rams, 77 lambs, and a sin offering of 12 male goats. All this was a burnt offering to the LORD.
- תַּיִשׁ tayishhe-goattranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H8495Noun · Translated: male goats 2, goats 1, he-goat 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Genesis 30:35 That very day Laban removed all the streaked or spotted male goats and every speckled or spotted female goat— every one that had any white on it— and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them under the care of his sons.
2 Chronicles 17:11 Some Philistines also brought gifts and silver as tribute to Jehoshaphat, and the Arabs brought him 7,700 rams and 7,700 goats from their flocks.
- יָעֵל yâêlmountain-goattranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H3277Noun · Translated: Wild Goats 2, goats 1Full study and all 3 verses →
1 Samuel 24:2 So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to look for David and his men in the region of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.
Job 39:1 “Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?
- שְׂעִירָה seîrâhshe-goattranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8166Noun · Translated: goat 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Leviticus 4:28 When he becomes aware of the sin he has committed, he must bring an unblemished female goat as his offering for that sin.
Leviticus 5:6 and he must bring his guilt offering to the LORD for the sin he has committed: a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering. And the priest will make atonement for him concerning his sin.
Greek words (New Testament)
- τράγος trágosa he-goattranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G5131Noun · Translated: goats 4Full study and all 4 verses →
Hebrews 9:12 He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,
- ἔριφος ériphosa goattranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G2056Noun · Translated: goats 1, young goat 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 25:32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
Luke 15:29 But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
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 goat: 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.