Word study
Group
7 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: group, groups. 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 “group” 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)
- חֶבֶל chebelcord, territory, bandtranslated this way 2 times of its 60 uses · Strong’s H2256Noun · Translated: cords 10, ropes 9, region 4, pain 3Full study and all 58 verses →
1 Samuel 10:5 After that you will come to Gibeah of God, where the Philistines have an outpost. As you approach the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, preceded by harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying.
1 Samuel 10:10 When Saul and his servant arrived at Gibeah, a group of prophets met him. Then the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied along with them.
- לַהֲקָה lahăqâhband, companytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H3862Noun · Translated: group 1Full study and its 1 verse →
1 Samuel 19:20 he sent messengers to seize him. But when they saw the group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel leading them, the Spirit of God came upon them, and Saul’s messengers also began to prophesy.
- נַעַר naara shaking, scatteringtranslated this way 1 time of its 227 uses · Strong’s H5288Noun · Translated: boy 48, young men 30, young man 27, servant 25Full study and all 214 verses →
2 Kings 2:23 From there, Elisha went up to Bethel, and as he was walking up the road, a group of boys came out of the city and jeered at him, chanting, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!”
- לִשְׁכָּה lishkâhroom, chamber, hall, cell, lishkatranslated this way 1 time of its 45 uses · Strong’s H3957Noun · Translated: chambers 17, chamber 12, storerooms 5, rooms 3Full study and all 40 verses →
Ezekiel 42:1 Then the man led me out northward into the outer court, and he brought me to the group of chambers opposite the temple courtyard and the outer wall on the north side.
- רְגַשׁ regashbe in tumulttranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H7284Verb · Translated: went together 1, went as a group 1, approached 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Daniel 6:11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel petitioning and imploring his God.
- אֵלֶּה êl-lehthesetranslated this way 1 time of its 693 uses · Strong’s H428Pronoun · Translated: these 377, things 36, of these 28, this 25Full study and all 655 verses →
- מַחְלְקָה machleqâhclass, divisiontranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H4255Noun · Translated: groups 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Ezra 6:18 They also appointed the priests by their divisions and the Levites by their groups to the service of God in Jerusalem, according to what is written in the Book of Moses.
Greek words (New Testament)
- πλῆθος plēthosa multitudetranslated this way 1 time of its 31 uses · Strong’s G4128Noun · Translated: number 5, crowd 4, multitude 4, congregation 2Full study and all 31 verses →
Acts 6:5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, as well as Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
- συμπόσιον sympósiona drinking party, festive companytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4849Noun · Translated: groups 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Mark 6:39 Then Jesus directed them to have the people sit in groups on the green grass.
- πρασιά prasiáa company formed into divisionstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4237Noun · Translated: groups 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Mark 6:40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.
- κλισία klisíaa dining couch, group of dinerstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2828Noun · Translated: groups 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Luke 9:14 (There were about five thousand men.) He told His disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
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.