Word study

Lamp

2 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: lamp, lamps. 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 “lamp” 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)

  • נִיר nîrlamptranslated this way 45 times of its 47 uses · Strong’s H5216Noun  ·  Translated: lamps 22, lamp 20, keep the lamps 2, so that 1

    Exodus 25:37 Make seven lamps and set them up on the lampstand so that they illuminate the area in front of it.

    Leviticus 24:2 “Command the Israelites to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.

    Full study and all 43 verses →
  • אֵת êthmark of the accusativetranslated this way 2 times of its 1,485 uses · Strong’s H853Direct object marker  ·  Translated: and 348, them 229, you 199, him 146

    Exodus 27:21 In the Tent of Meeting, outside the veil that is in front of the Testimony, Aaron and his sons are to tend the lamps before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the Israelites for the generations to come.’’

    Leviticus 24:3 Outside the veil of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps continually before the LORD from evening until morning. This is to be a permanent statute for the generations to come.

    Full study and all 1,311 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • λύχνος lýchnosa lamptranslated this way 14 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G3088Noun  ·  Translated: lamp 13, lamps 1

    Matthew 5:15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

    Mark 4:21 Jesus also said to them, “Does anyone bring in a lamp to put it under a basket or under a bed? Doesn’t he set it on a stand?

    Full study and all 14 verses →
  • λαμπάς lampása torch, lamp, lanterntranslated this way 6 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G2985Noun  ·  Translated: lamps 6, torches 2, torch 1

    Matthew 25:1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

    Acts 20:8 Now there were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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 lamp: 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.