Word study
Household
2 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: household, households. 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 “household” 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 102 times of its 1,913 uses · Strong’s H1004Noun · Translated: house 1,132, temple 176, palace 117, household 93Full study and all 1,624 verses →
Genesis 12:1 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you.
Exodus 12:3 Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man must select a lamb for his family, one per household.
- תְּרָפִים terâphîmTeraphimtranslated this way 10 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H8655Noun · Translated: household idols 6, household gods 2, idol 2, idols 2Full study and all 15 verses →
Genesis 31:19 Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.
Judges 17:5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some household idols, and ordained one of his sons as his priest.
Greek words (New Testament)
- οἶκος oîkosa house, householdtranslated this way 15 times of its 109 uses · Strong’s G3624Noun · Translated: house 59, home 25, household 14, family 4Full study and all 101 verses →
Luke 12:52 From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.
Acts 7:10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household.
- οἰκία oikíaa house, householdtranslated this way 7 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s G3614Noun · Translated: house 61, home 13, household 6, houses 5Full study and all 83 verses →
Matthew 12:25 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
Mark 6:4 Then Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown, among his relatives, and in his own household is a prophet without honor.”
- οἰκιακός oikiakósone of a familytranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G3615Noun · Translated: household 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 10:25 It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
Matthew 10:36 A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
- οἰκεῖος oikeîosof one's family, domestictranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G3609Adjective · Translated: family 1, members of god's household 1, household 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Ephesians 2:19 Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,
1 Timothy 5:8 If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
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.