Word study
Kingdom
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
In brief
The Greek basileia means kingship or reign before it means a territory: the kingdom of God is first his rule. The Hebrew mamlakah and malkut, and the Aramaic malku in Daniel, come from the root for "king" and have the same range. "Kingdom of heaven" in Matthew and "kingdom of God" in the other Gospels translate the same idea.
Written and reviewed by our editorial team.
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: kingdom, kingdoms. 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 “kingdom” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מַמְלָכָה mamlâkâhkingdom, sovereignty, dominion, reigntranslated this way 100 times of its 117 uses · Strong’s H4467Noun · Translated: kingdom 51, kingdoms 42, royal 8, kings 2Full study and all 113 verses →
Genesis 10:10 His kingdom began in Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
Exodus 19:6 And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”
- מַלְכוּת malkûthroyalty, royal power, reign, kingdomtranslated this way 48 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s H4438Noun · Translated: kingdom 46, reign 20, royal 17, kingdoms 2Full study and all 80 verses →
Numbers 24:7 Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will have abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.
1 Samuel 20:31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom shall be established. Now send for him and bring him to me, for he must surely die!”
- מַלְכוּ malkûroyalty, reign, kingdomtranslated this way 39 times of its 54 uses · Strong’s H4437Noun · Translated: kingdom 35, reign 4, sovereignty 3, royal 3Full study and all 42 verses →
Ezra 7:13 I hereby decree that any volunteers among the Israelites in my kingdom, including the priests and Levites, may go up with you to Jerusalem.
Daniel 2:39 But after you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule the whole earth.
- מַמְלָכוּת mamlâkûthkingdom, dominion, reigntranslated this way 7 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H4468Noun · Translated: kingdom 7, royal 1, reign 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Joshua 13:12 the whole kingdom of Og in Bashan, who had reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei and had remained as a remnant of the Rephaim. Moses had struck them down and dispossessed them,
1 Samuel 15:28 So Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you.
- מְלוּכָה melûkâhkingship, royaltytranslated this way 7 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H4410Noun · Translated: kingship 6, kingdom 6, royal 6Full study and all 23 verses →
1 Samuel 18:8 And Saul was furious and resented this song. “They have ascribed tens of thousands to David,” he said, “but only thousands to me. What more can he have but the kingdom?”
2 Samuel 16:8 The LORD has paid you back for all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, you have come to ruin because you are a man of bloodshed!”
- מֶלֶךְ melekkingtranslated this way 3 times of its 2,416 uses · Strong’s H4428Noun · Translated: king 1,810, kings 267, king's 134, royal 58Full study and all 1,901 verses →
1 Kings 3:13 Moreover, I will give you what you did not request — both riches and honor — so that during all your days no man in any kingdom will be your equal.
1 Kings 4:24 For Solomon had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates — over all the kingdoms from Tiphsah to Gaza — and he had peace on all sides.
Greek words (New Testament)
- βασιλεία basileíakingship, sovereignty, authority, rule, kingdomtranslated this way 157 times of its 160 uses · Strong’s G932Noun · Translated: kingdom 154, kingdoms 3, kingship 2, rules 1Full study and all 154 verses →
Matthew 3:2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”
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.