Word study
Hair
9 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: hair, hairs. 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 “hair” 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)
- שֵׂעָר sêârhairtranslated this way 24 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s H8181Noun · Translated: hair 23, hairy 3, covered with hair 1, However 1Full study and all 26 verses →
Genesis 25:25 The first one came out red, covered with hair like a fur coat; so they named him Esau.
Leviticus 13:3 The priest is to examine the infection on his skin, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.
- עֵז êzshe-goattranslated this way 7 times of its 33 uses · Strong’s H5795Noun · Translated: goats 12, goat 10, goat hair 6, female goat 2Full study and all 33 verses →
Exodus 25:4 blue, purple, and scarlet yarn; fine linen and goat hair;
Numbers 31:20 And purify every garment and leather good, everything made of goat’s hair, and every article of wood.”
- שַׂעֲרָה saărâha hairtranslated this way 7 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H8185Noun · Translated: hair 4, hairs 2, single hair 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Judges 20:16 Among all these soldiers there were 700 select left-handers, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair without missing.
1 Samuel 14:45 But the people said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die — he who accomplished such a great deliverance for Israel? Never! As surely as the LORD lives, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground, for with God’s help he has accomplished this today.” So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die.
- שֵׂיבָה sêbâhhoary head, old agetranslated this way 6 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7872Noun · Translated: old age 5, gray hair 3, gray 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Genesis 42:38 But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If any harm comes to him on your journey, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”
Job 41:32 He leaves a glistening wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair!
- רֹאשׁ rôshheadtranslated this way 6 times of its 570 uses · Strong’s H7218Noun · Translated: head 200, heads 113, chief 31, top 29Full study and all 530 verses →
Leviticus 10:6 Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become disheveled and do not tear your garments, or else you will die, and the LORD will be angry with the whole congregation. But your brothers, the whole house of Israel, may mourn on account of the fire that the LORD has ignited.
Numbers 5:18 After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial, which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.
- שְׂעַר searhairtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H8177Noun · Translated: hair 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Daniel 3:27 and when the satraps, prefects, governors, and royal advisers had gathered around, they saw that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men. Not a hair of their heads was singed, their robes were unaffected, and there was no smell of fire on them.
Daniel 4:33 At that moment the sentence against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from mankind. He ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird.
- מָרַט mâraṭmake smooth, bare, bald; scour, polishtranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H4803Verb · Translated: polished 5, smooth-skinned 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Leviticus 13:40 Now if a man loses his hair and is bald, he is still clean.
Nehemiah 13:25 I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of these men and pulled out their hair. Then I made them take an oath before God and said, “You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters as wives for your sons or for yourselves!
- נֶזֶר nezerconsecration, crown, Naziriteshiptranslated this way 2 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5145Noun · Translated: crown 8, separation 8, diadem 2, consecration 2Full study and all 22 verses →
Numbers 6:9 If someone suddenly dies in his presence and defiles his consecrated head of hair, he must shave his head on the day of his cleansing — the seventh day.
Jeremiah 7:29 Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’
- קְוֻצָּה qevutstsâhforelocktranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H6977Noun · Translated: hair 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Song of Solomon 5:2 I sleep, but my heart is awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking: “Open to me, my sister, my darling, my dove, my flawless one. My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.”
Song of Solomon 5:11 His head is purest gold; his hair is wavy and black as a raven.
Greek words (New Testament)
- θρίξ thríxa hairtranslated this way 14 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G2359Noun · Translated: hair 12, hairs 2Full study and all 14 verses →
Matthew 3:4 John wore a garment of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
Mark 1:6 John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
- κείρω keírōI shear, cut the hair oftranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G2751Verb · Translated: hair cut 2, shearer 1, shaved 1Full study and all 3 verses →
1 Corinthians 11:6 If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. And if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.
- κομάω komáōI wear the hair longtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G2863Verb · Translated: long hair 2Full study and all 2 verses →
1 Corinthians 11:14 Doesn’t nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him,
1 Corinthians 11:15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.
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 hair: 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.