Word study
Heap
8 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: heap, heaps, heaped, heaping. 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 “heap” 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)
- עָרֵם ârêmheap, sheaftranslated this way 6 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H6194Noun · Translated: heaps 3Full study and all 10 verses →
Ruth 3:7 After Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then Ruth went in secretly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
2 Chronicles 31:6 And the Israelites and Judahites who lived in the cities of Judah also brought a tithe of their herds and flocks and a tithe of the holy things consecrated to the LORD their God, and they laid them in large heaps.
- גַּל galheap, wave, billowtranslated this way 5 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s H1530Noun · Translated: waves 13, mound 8, heap of rubble 3, pile 2Full study and all 31 verses →
Job 8:17 His roots wrap around the rock heap; he looks for a home among the stones.
Isaiah 25:2 Indeed, You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin. The fortress of strangers is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.
- צָבַר tsâbarheap uptranslated this way 3 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H6651Verb · Translated: heaps 2, lay 1, stored 1, piled 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Job 27:16 Though he heaps up silver like dust and piles up a wardrobe like clay,
Psalm 39:6 Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.
- עִי îruin, heap of ruinstranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H5856Noun · Translated: heap of rubble 3, ruined man 1, rubble 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Jeremiah 26:18 “Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and told all the people of Judah that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.’
Micah 1:6 Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble in the open field, a planting area for a vineyard. I will pour her stones into the valley and expose her foundations.
- אַשְׁפֹּת ashpôthash-heap(?), refuse-heap, dung-hilltranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H830Noun · Translated: Dung 3, ash heap 1, toward the dung 1, dump 1Full study and all 7 verses →
1 Samuel 2:8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s, and upon them He has set the world.
Lamentations 4:5 Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
- סָפָה sâphâhsweep away or snatch away, catch uptranslated this way 2 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H5595Verb · Translated: swept away 8Full study and all 18 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:23 I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.
Isaiah 30:1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
- תֵּל têlmoundtranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H8510Noun · Translated: mound of ruins 1, heap of ruins 1, mounds 1, ruins 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Joshua 8:28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolation to this day.
Jeremiah 49:2 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will sound the battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a heap of ruins, and its villages will be burned. Then Israel will drive out their dispossessors, says the LORD.
- עֶלְיוֹן elyônhightranslated this way 2 times of its 52 uses · Strong’s H5945Adjective · Translated: Most High 31, Upper 15, heap of rubble 2, highest 2Full study and all 52 verses →
1 Kings 9:8 And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and will hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
2 Chronicles 7:21 And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’
Greek words (New Testament)
- βλασφημέω blasphēméōI speak evil against, blasphemetranslated this way 4 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s G987Verb · Translated: blaspheme 4, slander 4, blasphemed 3, heaped abuse 3Full study and all 34 verses →
Matthew 27:39 And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads
Mark 15:29 And those who passed by heaped abuse on Him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
- λοιδορέω loidoréōI revile, abusetranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G3058Verb · Translated: heaped insults 1, dare you insult 1, vilified 1, heaped abuse 1Full study and all 4 verses →
John 9:28 Then they heaped insults on him and said, “You are His disciple; we are disciples of Moses.
1 Peter 2:23 When they heaped abuse on Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats, but entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.
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.