Word study
Item
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: items, item. 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 “item” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עֲרָבוֹן ărâbônpledgetranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6162Noun · Translated: something as a pledge 1, pledge 1, items he had left 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Genesis 38:20 Now when Judah sent his friend Hirah the Adullamite with the young goat to collect the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her.
- לָקַח lâqachtaketranslated this way 1 time of its 938 uses · Strong’s H3947Verb · Translated: take 247, took 245, taken 40, get 26Full study and all 890 verses →
Genesis 38:23 “Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.”
- אֵלֶּה êl-lehthesetranslated this way 1 time of its 693 uses · Strong’s H428Pronoun · Translated: these 377, things 36, of these 28, this 25Full study and all 655 verses →
Genesis 38:25 As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Please examine them. Whose seal and cord and staff are these?”
- כְּלִי kelîarticle, utensil, vesseltranslated this way 1 time of its 282 uses · Strong’s H3627Noun · Translated: articles 59, utensils 32, weapons 20, furnishings 15Full study and all 255 verses →
Numbers 4:32 and the posts of the surrounding courtyard with their bases, tent pegs, and ropes, including all their equipment and everything related to their use. You shall assign by name the items that they are responsible to carry.
- קֹדֶשׁ qôdeshsacred, sanctitytranslated this way 1 time of its 437 uses · Strong’s H6944Noun · Translated: holy 192, sanctuary 42, sacred 31, according to the sanctuary 24Full study and all 379 verses →
2 Kings 12:18 So King Joash of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers— Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah— along with his own consecrated items and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram. So Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem.
- אֲבֵדָה ăbêdâha lost thingtranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H9Noun · Translated: lost property 2, lost item 1, lost 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Exodus 22:9 In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any lost item that someone claims, ‘This is mine,’ both parties shall bring their cases before the judges. The one whom the judges find guilty must pay back double to his neighbor.
- נֶגַע negastroke, plague, mark, plague-spottranslated this way 1 time of its 64 uses · Strong’s H5061Noun · Translated: infection 12, mildew 12, contaminated 6, plague 4Full study and all 56 verses →
Leviticus 13:52 He is to burn the fabric, weave, or knit, whether the contaminated item is wool or linen or leather. Since the mildew is harmful, the article must be burned up.
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.