Word study

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7 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: home, homes. 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 “home” 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)

  • בַּיִת bayithhousetranslated this way 87 times of its 1,913 uses · Strong’s H1004Noun  ·  Translated: house 1,132, temple 176, palace 117, household 93

    Genesis 29:13 When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, where Jacob told him all that had happened.

    Exodus 12:27 you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

    Full study and all 1,624 verses →
  • מָקוֹם mâqômstanding, spot, conditiontranslated this way 17 times of its 381 uses · Strong’s H4725Noun  ·  Translated: place 279, home 16, places 11, wherever 7

    Genesis 18:33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, He departed, and Abraham returned home.

    Exodus 3:8 I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey— the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

    Full study and all 364 verses →
  • אֹהֶל ôheltenttranslated this way 17 times of its 338 uses · Strong’s H168Noun  ·  Translated: Tent 259, tents 46, home 10, homes 7

    Genesis 25:27 When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

    Joshua 22:4 And now that the LORD your God has given your brothers rest as He promised them, you may return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you across the Jordan.

    Full study and all 310 verses →
  • שׁוּב shûbturn back, returntranslated this way 4 times of its 1,007 uses · Strong’s H7725Verb  ·  Translated: return 218, returned 105, restore 62, turn 56

    Ruth 1:11 But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands?

    1 Samuel 18:6 As the troops were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs, and with tambourines and other instruments.

    Full study and all 920 verses →
  • מוֹשָׁב môshâbseat, assembly, dwelling-place, dwelling, dwellerstranslated this way 3 times of its 42 uses · Strong’s H4186Noun  ·  Translated: live 9, dwellings 4, seat 4, settlements 4

    Exodus 12:20 You are not to eat anything leavened; eat unleavened bread in all your homes.”

    Numbers 15:2 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: After you enter the land that I am giving you as a home

    Full study and all 42 verses →
  • בּוֹא bôcome in, come, go in, gotranslated this way 2 times of its 2,442 uses · Strong’s H935Verb  ·  Translated: come 358, came 298, bring 209, brought 201Full study and all 2,217 verses →
  • נָוֶה nâvehabode of shepherd, or flockstranslated this way 2 times of its 37 uses · Strong’s H5116Noun  ·  Translated: pasture 11, dwelling 3, dwelling place 2, home 2

    Job 5:24 You will know that your tent is secure, and find nothing amiss when inspecting your home.

    Proverbs 3:33 The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous.

    Full study and all 36 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • οἶκος oîkosa house, householdtranslated this way 26 times of its 109 uses · Strong’s G3624Noun  ·  Translated: house 59, home 25, household 14, family 4

    Matthew 9:6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...” Then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your mat, and go home.”

    Mark 2:1 A few days later Jesus went back to Capernaum. And when the people heard that He was home,

    Full study and all 101 verses →
  • οἰκία oikíaa house, householdtranslated this way 14 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s G3614Noun  ·  Translated: house 61, home 13, household 6, houses 5

    Matthew 8:6 “Lord, my servant lies at home, paralyzed and in terrible agony.”

    Mark 1:29 As soon as Jesus and His companions had left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew.

    Full study and all 83 verses →
  • ἐνδημέω endēméōI am at hometranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G1736Verb  ·  Translated: home 3

    2 Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.

    2 Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

    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 home: 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.