Word study
Hip
5 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: hip, hips. 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 “hip” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- יָרֵךְ yârêkthigh, loin, side, basetranslated this way 4 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s H3409Noun · Translated: thigh 11, side 9, hip 3, base 3Full study and all 28 verses →
Genesis 32:25 When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.
Genesis 32:31 The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.
- שֵׁתָה shêthâhseattranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8357Noun · Translated: hips 1, buttocks 1Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Samuel 10:4 So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away.
- מִפְשָׂעָה miphsââhstepping-regiontranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H4667Noun · Translated: hips 1Full study and its 1 verse →
1 Chronicles 19:4 So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved their beards, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away.
- מֹתֶן môthenwaist, loinstranslated this way 1 time of its 39 uses · Strong’s H4975Noun · Translated: waist 12, around his waist 4, side 4, backs 3Full study and all 37 verses →
Isaiah 11:5 Righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the sash around His waist.
- חֲרַץ chăratslointranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H2783Noun · Translated: hips 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Daniel 5:6 his face grew pale and his thoughts so alarmed him that his hips gave way and his knees knocked together.
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.