Word study
Hail
1 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “hail”. 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 “hail” or one of its forms.
Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- בָּרָד bârâdhailtranslated this way 22 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H1259Noun · Translated: hail 22, hailstones 4, Like a hailstorm 1Full study and all 25 verses →
Exodus 9:18 Behold, at this time tomorrow I will rain down the worst hail that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded until now.
Job 38:22 Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail,
Greek words (New Testament)
- χαίρω chaírōI rejoice, am gladtranslated this way 3 times of its 71 uses · Strong’s G5463Verb · Translated: rejoice 26, rejoiced 7, Greetings 6, glad 6Full study and all 65 verses →
Matthew 27:29 And they twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on His head. They put a staff in His right hand, knelt down before Him, and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
Mark 15:18 And they began to salute Him: “Hail, King of the Jews!”
- χάλαζα chálazahailtranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G5464Noun · Translated: hail 2, hailstorm 1, hailstones 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Revelation 8:7 Then the first angel sounded his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, along with a third of the trees and all the green grass.
Revelation 16:21 And great hailstones weighing almost a hundred pounds each rained down on them from above. And men cursed God for the plague of hail, because it was so horrendous.
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 hail: 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.