Word study

Hall

5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “hall”. 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 “hall” 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)

  • אוּלָם ûlâmporchtranslated this way 3 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H197Noun  ·  Translated: portico 26, hall 3, colonnade 1, Inside the portico 1

    1 Kings 7:7 In addition, he built a hall for the throne, the Hall of Justice, where he was to judge. It was paneled with cedar from floor to ceiling.

    1 Kings 7:8 And the palace where Solomon would live, set further back, was of similar construction. He also made a palace like this hall for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.

    Full study and all 29 verses →
  • בַּיִת bayithhousetranslated this way 3 times of its 1,913 uses · Strong’s H1004Noun  ·  Translated: house 1,132, temple 176, palace 117, household 93Full study and all 1,624 verses →
  • הֵיכָל hêkâlpalace, templetranslated this way 2 times of its 78 uses · Strong’s H1964Noun  ·  Translated: temple 56, palace 7, outer sanctuary 6, palaces 4

    1 Kings 6:3 The portico at the front of the main hall of the temple was twenty cubits long, extending across the width of the temple and projecting out ten cubits in front of the temple.

    1 Kings 6:17 And the main hall in front of this room was forty cubits long.

    Full study and all 74 verses →
  • 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 3

    1 Samuel 9:22 Then Samuel took Saul and his servant, brought them into the hall, and seated them in the place of honor among those who were invited — about thirty in all.

    Full study and all 40 verses →
  • בַּיִת bayithhousetranslated this way 1 time of its 43 uses · Strong’s H1005Noun  ·  Translated: house 30, temple 5, archives 2, houses 2

    Daniel 5:10 Hearing the outcry of the king and his nobles, the queen entered the banquet hall. “O king, may you live forever!” she said. “Do not let your thoughts terrify you, or your face grow pale.

    Full study and all 38 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • γάμος gámosa marriage, wedding, wedding-feasttranslated this way 1 time of its 16 uses · Strong’s G1062Noun  ·  Translated: wedding banquet 6, wedding 4, marriage 3, banquet 2

    Matthew 22:10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • σχολή scholḗleisure, a schooltranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4981Noun  ·  Translated: lecture hall 1

    Acts 19:9 But when some of them stubbornly refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way, Paul took his disciples and left the synagogue to conduct daily discussions in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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.