Word study
Inside
6 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “inside”. 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 “inside” 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 17 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 6:14 Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark and coat it with pitch inside and out.
Exodus 9:19 So give orders now to shelter your livestock and everything you have in the field. Every man or beast that remains in the field and is not brought inside will die when the hail comes down upon them.’”
- תָּוֶךְ tâvekmidsttranslated this way 16 times of its 379 uses · Strong’s H8432Noun · Translated: among 70, middle 31, within 30, among them 27Full study and all 361 verses →
Genesis 9:21 But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.
Joshua 7:21 When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
- אֵל êlmotion totranslated this way 7 times of its 4,199 uses · Strong’s H413Preposition · Translated: to 1,941, to me 285, to you 149, to him 137Full study and all 3,455 verses →
Genesis 8:9 But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she returned to him in the ark, because the waters were still covering the surface of all the earth. So he reached out his hand and brought her back inside the ark.
- פְּנִימָה penîmâhtowards the (in-)sidetranslated this way 7 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H6441Adverb · Translated: inside 6, paneling inside 1, inner 1, in 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Leviticus 10:18 Since its blood was not brought inside the holy place, you should have eaten it in the sanctuary area, as I commanded.”
1 Kings 6:18 The cedar paneling inside the temple was carved with gourds and open flowers. Everything was cedar; not a stone could be seen.
- חֵיק chêqbosomtranslated this way 2 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s H2436Noun · Translated: arms 6, bosom 4, laps 4, lap 3Full study and all 31 verses →
Exodus 4:6 Furthermore, the LORD said to Moses, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, white as snow.
- 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 →
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἔσωθεν ésōthenfrom within, insidetranslated this way 6 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s G2081Adverb · Translated: inside 6, within 4, inwardly 1, sides 1Full study and all 12 verses →
Matthew 23:25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
Luke 11:7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Do not bother me. My door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’
- ἔσω ésōwithin, insidetranslated this way 3 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G2080Adverb · Translated: inside 3, inner 3, into 2, in 1Full study and all 9 verses →
John 20:26 Eight days later, His disciples were once again inside with the doors locked, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
Acts 5:23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards posted at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
- εἰσέρχομαι eisérchomaiI go in, come in, entertranslated this way 2 times of its 189 uses · Strong’s G1525Verb · Translated: enter 54, entered 38, went 22, come 11Full study and all 178 verses →
Mark 5:39 He went inside and asked, “Why all this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead, but asleep.”
Acts 10:27 As Peter talked with him, he went inside and found many people gathered together.
- βλέπω blépōI look, seetranslated this way 2 times of its 128 uses · Strong’s G991Verb · Translated: see 53, seeing 10, saw 8, sees 6Full study and all 117 verses →
Revelation 5:3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look inside it.
Revelation 5:4 And I began to weep bitterly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look inside it.
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.