Word study

Hammer

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: hammered, hammer, hammers. 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 “hammer” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מִקְשָׁה miqshâhhammered worktranslated this way 8 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H4749Noun  ·  Translated: hammered 7, made of hammered 1

    Exodus 25:18 Make two cherubim of hammered gold at the ends of the mercy seat,

    Numbers 8:4 This is how the lampstand was constructed: it was made of hammered gold from its base to its blossoms, fashioned according to the pattern the LORD had shown Moses.

    Full study and all 8 verses →
  • שָׁחַט shâchaṭslaughter, beattranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7820Verb  ·  Translated: hammered 5

    1 Kings 10:16 King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield.

    2 Chronicles 9:15 King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • רָקַע râqabeat, stamp, beat out, spread outtranslated this way 3 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H7554Verb  ·  Translated: spread 4, hammered 3, trampled 1, overlays 1

    Exodus 39:3 They hammered out thin sheets of gold and cut threads from them to interweave with the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen — the work of a skilled craftsman.

    Numbers 16:39 So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers brought by those who had been burned up, and he had them hammered out to overlay the altar,

    Full study and all 11 verses →
  • מַקָּבָה maqqâbâhperforatrix, hammer, piercingtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4717Noun  ·  Translated: hammer 2, hammers 1

    1 Kings 6:7 The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

    Isaiah 44:12 The blacksmith takes a tool and labors over the coals; he fashions an idol with hammers and forges it with his strong arms. Yet he grows hungry and loses his strength; he fails to drink water and grows faint.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • פַּטִּישׁ paṭṭîshforge-hammertranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6360Noun  ·  Translated: hammer 2, like a hammer 1

    Isaiah 41:7 The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who wields the hammer cheers him who strikes the anvil, saying of the welding, “It is good.” He nails it down so it will not be toppled.

    Jeremiah 23:29 “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”

    Full study and all 3 verses →
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.

What the Bible says about hammer: 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.