Word study
Lamb
10 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: lamb, lambs. 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 “lamb” 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)
- כֶּבֶשׂ kebeslambtranslated this way 97 times of its 99 uses · Strong’s H3532Noun · Translated: male lambs 35, lambs 26, lamb 20, male lamb 15Full study and all 99 verses →
Exodus 29:38 This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar, each day: two lambs that are a year old.
Leviticus 4:32 If, however, he brings a lamb as a sin offering, he must bring an unblemished female.
- שֶׂה sehone of a flock, a sheep (or goat)translated this way 14 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s H7716Noun · Translated: sheep 25, lamb 12, another 2Full study and all 38 verses →
Genesis 22:7 Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” “Here I am, my son,” he replied. “The fire and the wood are here,” said Isaac, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
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.
- כִּבְשָׂה kibsâhewe-lambtranslated this way 8 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H3535Noun · Translated: ewe lambs 3, ewe lamb 2, lamb 2, female lamb 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Genesis 21:28 Abraham separated seven ewe lambs from the flock,
Leviticus 14:10 On the eighth day he is to bring two unblemished male lambs, an unblemished ewe lamb a year old, a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with olive oil, and one log of olive oil.
- כַּר karbasket-saddletranslated this way 8 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H3733Noun · Translated: lambs 7, battering rams 3, pastures 2Full study and all 15 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:14 with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine.
1 Samuel 15:9 Saul and his troops spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs, and the best of everything else. They were unwilling to devote them to destruction, but they devoted to destruction all that was despised and worthless.
- כֶּשֶׂב keseblambtranslated this way 6 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s H3775Noun · Translated: sheep 6, lamb 5, lambs 1, young 1Full study and all 13 verses →
Genesis 30:32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. These will be my wages.
Leviticus 3:7 If he is presenting a lamb for his offering, he must present it before the LORD.
- פֶּסַח pesachpassovertranslated this way 6 times of its 48 uses · Strong’s H6453Noun · Translated: Passover 36, Passover lamb 4, Passover sacrifice 2, Passover lambs 2Full study and all 45 verses →
Exodus 12:21 Then Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and told them, “Go at once and select for yourselves a lamb for each family, and slaughter the Passover lamb.
2 Chronicles 30:15 And on the fourteenth day of the second month they slaughtered the Passover lamb. The priests and Levites were ashamed, and they consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the LORD.
- עַשְׁתְּרָה ashterâhincreasetranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H6251Noun · Translated: lambs 4Full study and all 4 verses →
Deuteronomy 7:13 He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land— your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks— in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.
Deuteronomy 28:4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock — the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
- אִמַּר immarlambtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H563Noun · Translated: lambs 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Ezra 6:9 Whatever is needed— young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem— must be given to them daily without fail.
Ezra 6:17 For the dedication of the house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and a sin offering for all Israel of twelve male goats, one for each tribe of Israel.
- בֵּן bênsontranslated this way 2 times of its 4,587 uses · Strong’s H1121Noun · Translated: son 1,843, sons 892, Israelites 422, descendants 358Full study and all 3,473 verses →
- טָלֶה ṭâlehlambtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H2924Noun · Translated: lamb 2Full study and all 2 verses →
1 Samuel 7:9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. He cried out to the LORD on behalf of Israel, and the LORD answered him.
Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the food of the serpent will be dust. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀρνίον arníona lambtranslated this way 30 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s G721Noun · Translated: Lamb 28, lambs 1, Lamb's 1Full study and all 28 verses →
John 21:15 When they had finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus replied, “Feed My lambs.”
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.
- ἀμνός amnósa lambtranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G286Noun · Translated: Lamb 4Full study and all 4 verses →
John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Acts 8:32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
- πάσχα páschathe feast of Passover, the Passover lambtranslated this way 3 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s G3957Noun · Translated: Passover 26, Passover lamb 3Full study and all 27 verses →
Mark 14:12 On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”
Luke 22:7 Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb was to be sacrificed.
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.
What the Bible says about lamb: 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.