Word study
Height
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: heights, height. 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 “height” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מָרוֹם mârômheighttranslated this way 14 times of its 53 uses · Strong’s H4791Noun · Translated: high 20, heights 12, lofty 3, heaven 3Full study and all 51 verses →
Judges 5:18 Zebulun was a people who risked their lives; Naphtali, too, on the heights of the battlefield.
2 Kings 19:23 Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest outposts, the densest of its forests.
- בָּמָה bâmâhhigh placetranslated this way 10 times of its 97 uses · Strong’s H1116Noun · Translated: high places 64, high place 18, heights 10, ridge 2Full study and all 92 verses →
Numbers 21:28 For a fire went out from Heshbon, a blaze from the city of Sihon. It consumed Ar of Moab, the rulers of Arnon’s heights.
Deuteronomy 32:13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag,
- שְׁפִי shephîbareness, smooth or bare (treeless) heighttranslated this way 8 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H8205Noun · Translated: barren heights 7, barren height 1, protrude 1, barren hill 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Numbers 23:3 “Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone,” Balaam said to Balak. “Perhaps the LORD will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you.” So Balaam went off to a barren height,
Isaiah 41:18 I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs.
- קוֹמָה qômâhheighttranslated this way 7 times of its 42 uses · Strong’s H6967Noun · Translated: high 27, height 7, tallest 2, tall 2Full study and all 41 verses →
1 Kings 6:26 and the height of each cherub was ten cubits.
2 Chronicles 4:2 He also made the Sea of cast metal. It was circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim, five cubits in height, and thirty cubits in circumference.
- גֹּבַהּ gôbahhheighttranslated this way 5 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H1363Noun · Translated: height 4, high 4, pride 2Full study and all 16 verses →
1 Samuel 17:4 Then a champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out from the Philistine camp. He was six cubits and a span in height,
Ezekiel 19:11 It had strong branches, fit for a ruler’s scepter. It towered high above the thick branches, conspicuous for its height and for its dense foliage.
- גָּבֹהַּ gâbôahhhigh, exaltedtranslated this way 2 times of its 40 uses · Strong’s H1364Adjective · Translated: high 20, proud 3, haughty 2, longer 2Full study and all 36 verses →
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.”
Ecclesiastes 12:5 when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels — for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὕψος hýpsosheight, heaventranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G5311Noun · Translated: high 3, height 2, high position 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Ephesians 3:18 will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth
Revelation 21:16 The city lies foursquare, with its width the same as its length. And he measured the city with the rod, and all its dimensions were equal — 12,000 stadia in length and width and height.
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.