Word study

Horn

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • קֶרֶן qerenhorntranslated this way 68 times of its 76 uses · Strong’s H7161Noun  ·  Translated: horns 40, horn 24, two-horned 2

    Genesis 22:13 Then Abraham looked up and saw behind him a ram in a thicket, caught by its horns. So he went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

    Exodus 27:2 Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.

    Full study and all 69 verses →
  • שׁוֹפָר shôphârhorntranslated this way 64 times of its 65 uses · Strong’s H7782Noun  ·  Translated: ram's horn 34, horn 12, horns 12, rams horns 5

    Exodus 19:16 On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

    Leviticus 25:9 Then you are to sound the horn far and wide on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement. You shall sound it throughout your land.

    Full study and all 60 verses →
  • קֶרֶן qerenhorntranslated this way 14 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H7162Noun  ·  Translated: horn 9, horns 5

    Daniel 3:5 As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.

    Daniel 3:7 Therefore, as soon as all the people heard the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, and all kinds of music, the people of every nation and language would fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • יוֹבֵל yôbêlram, ram's horn, cornettranslated this way 5 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H3104Noun  ·  Translated: Jubilee 20, rams horns 4, ram's horn 1, last jubilee 1

    Exodus 19:13 No hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows — whether man or beast, he must not live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”

    Joshua 6:4 Have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark. Then on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns.

    Full study and all 25 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κέρας kérasa horntranslated this way 11 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G2768Noun  ·  Translated: horns 10, horn 1

    Luke 1:69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David,

    Revelation 5:6 Then I saw a Lamb who appeared to have been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

    Full study and all 10 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 horn: 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.