Word study
Grain
16 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: grain, grains. 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 “grain” 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)
- מִנְחָה minchâhgift, tribute, offeringtranslated this way 131 times of its 201 uses · Strong’s H4503Noun · Translated: grain offering 86, offering 21, grain offerings 21, tribute 16Full study and all 190 verses →
Exodus 29:41 And offer the second lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning, as a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.
Leviticus 2:3 The remainder of the grain offering shall belong to Aaron and his sons; it is a most holy part of the food offerings to the LORD.
- דָּגָן dâgâncorn, graintranslated this way 39 times of its 39 uses · Strong’s H1715Noun · Translated: grain 39Full study and all 39 verses →
Genesis 27:28 May God give to you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth — an abundance of grain and new wine.
Numbers 18:12 I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the LORD as their firstfruits.
- שִׁבֹּל shibbôlstream, ear of grain, branchtranslated this way 11 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7641Noun · Translated: heads of grain 10, ones 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Genesis 41:5 but he fell back asleep and dreamed a second time: Seven heads of grain, plump and ripe, came up on one stalk.
Ruth 2:2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the fields and glean heads of grain after someone in whose sight I may find favor.” “Go ahead, my daughter,” Naomi replied.
- בָּר bârcorntranslated this way 11 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H1250Noun · Translated: grain 11, wheat 2, open field 1Full study and all 14 verses →
Genesis 41:35 Under the authority of Pharaoh, let them collect all the excess food from these good years, that they may come and lay up the grain to be preserved as food in the cities.
Psalm 65:13 The pastures are clothed with flocks, and the valleys are decked with grain. They shout in triumph; indeed, they sing.
- שֶׁבֶר shebercorn, graintranslated this way 9 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H7668Noun · Translated: grain 7, exchange for the grain 1, kind of grain 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Genesis 42:1 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you staring at one another?”
Nehemiah 10:31 When the people of the land bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on a Sabbath or holy day. Every seventh year we will let the fields lie fallow and will cancel every debt.
- קָמָה qâmâhstanding graintranslated this way 7 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H7054Noun · Translated: standing grain 6, grown 2, grainfield 1, grain 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Exodus 22:6 If a fire breaks out and spreads to thornbushes so that it consumes stacked or standing grain, or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make full restitution.
Deuteronomy 16:9 You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
- שָׁבַר shâbarbuy graintranslated this way 4 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H7666Verb · Translated: buy 11, sold grain 2, buy grain 2, sell 2Full study and all 20 verses →
Genesis 41:56 When the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened up all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians; for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
Genesis 41:57 And every nation came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.
- זֶרַע zerasowing, seed, offspringtranslated this way 4 times of its 220 uses · Strong’s H2233Noun · Translated: descendants 78, offspring 45, seed 34, children 10Full study and all 201 verses →
Numbers 20:5 Why have you led us up out of Egypt to bring us to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain, figs, vines, or pomegranates — and there is no water to drink!”
1 Samuel 8:15 He will take a tenth of your grain and grape harvest and give it to his officials and servants.
- קָלִי qâlîparched graintranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7039Noun · Translated: roasted grain 4, roasted 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Ruth 2:14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here; have some bread and dip it into the vinegar sauce.” So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
1 Samuel 17:17 One day Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.
- קׇרְבָּן qorbânoffering, oblationtranslated this way 3 times of its 75 uses · Strong’s H7133Noun · Translated: offering 57, offerings 5, one's offering 4, offers 2Full study and all 72 verses →
Leviticus 2:1 “When anyone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering must consist of fine flour. He is to pour olive oil on it, put frankincense on it,
Leviticus 2:4 Now if you bring an offering of grain baked in an oven, it must consist of fine flour, either unleavened cakes mixed with oil or unleavened wafers coated with oil.
- עָרֵם ârêmheap, sheaftranslated this way 3 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H6194Noun · Translated: heaps 3Full study and all 10 verses →
Ruth 3:7 After Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then Ruth went in secretly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
Nehemiah 13:15 In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.
- כַּרְמֶל karmelplantation, garden-landtranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H3759Noun · Translated: orchard 6Full study and all 14 verses →
Leviticus 23:14 You must not eat any bread or roasted or new grain until the very day you have brought this offering to your God. This is to be a permanent statute for the generations to come, wherever you live.
2 Kings 4:42 Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.
- דּוּשׁ dûshtread, threshtranslated this way 2 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H1758Verb · Translated: threshed 3, thresh 3, threshing 2Full study and all 14 verses →
Deuteronomy 25:4 Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.
Jeremiah 50:11 “Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph— you who plunder My inheritance— because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,
- גָּדִישׁ gâdîshheap, stacktranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H1430Noun · Translated: stacked 1, piles of grain 1, like a sheaf of grain 1, tomb 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Judges 15:5 Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
Job 5:26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.
- רִיפָה rîphâhgritstranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H7383Noun · Translated: grain 1, like grain 1Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Samuel 17:19 Then the man’s wife took a covering, spread it over the mouth of the well, and scattered grain over it so nobody would know a thing.
Proverbs 27:22 Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle, yet his folly will not depart from him.
- עָמִיר âmîrswath, row of fallen graintranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H5995Noun · Translated: like newly cut grain 1, grain 1, like sheaves 1, sheaves 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Jeremiah 9:22 Declare that this is what the LORD says: “The corpses of men will fall like dung upon the open field, like newly cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather it.”
Amos 2:13 Behold, I am about to crush you in your place as with a cart full of grain.
Greek words (New Testament)
- σῖτος sîtoswheat, graintranslated this way 4 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s G4621Noun · Translated: wheat 11, grain 4Full study and all 15 verses →
Mark 4:28 All by itself the earth produces a crop— first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within.
Luke 12:18 Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, and there I will store up all my grain and my goods.
- στάχυς stáchysa head of graintranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G4719Noun · Translated: heads of grain 3, head 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them.
Mark 2:23 One Sabbath Jesus was passing through the grainfields, and His disciples began to pick the heads of grain as they walked along.
- καρπός karpósfruit, result, gaintranslated this way 2 times of its 63 uses · Strong’s G2590Noun · Translated: fruit 45, crop 6, crops 3, grain 2Full study and all 55 verses →
Matthew 13:26 When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.
Mark 4:29 And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
- ἀλοάω aloáōI threshtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G248Verb · Translated: treading out the grain 2, thresher 1Full study and all 3 verses →
1 Corinthians 9:9 For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?
1 Timothy 5:18 For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and, “The worker is worthy of his wages.”
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.