Word study

Leg

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: legs, leg. 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 “leg” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • כָּרָע kârâlegtranslated this way 9 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H3767Noun  ·  Translated: legs 8, jointed legs 1

    Exodus 12:9 Do not eat any of the meat raw or cooked in boiling water, but only roasted over the fire— its head and legs and inner parts.

    Leviticus 1:9 The entrails and legs must be washed with water, and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering, a pleasing aroma to the LORD.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • רֶגֶל regelfoottranslated this way 8 times of its 213 uses · Strong’s H7272Noun  ·  Translated: feet 128, foot 45, legs 8, times 4

    Exodus 25:26 Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners at its four legs.

    Leviticus 11:23 All other flying insects that have four legs are detestable to you.

    Full study and all 203 verses →
  • שׁוֹק shôqlegtranslated this way 4 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7785Noun  ·  Translated: thigh 13, legs 3, thighs 1, ruthlessly 1

    1 Samuel 9:24 So the cook picked up the leg and what was attached to it and set it before Saul. Then Samuel said, “Here is what was kept back. It was set apart for you. Eat, for it has been kept for you for this occasion, from the time I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul dined with Samuel that day.

    Psalm 147:10 He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.

    Full study and all 19 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • σκέλος skélosthe legtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4628Noun  ·  Translated: legs 3

    John 19:31 It was the day of Preparation, and the next day was a High Sabbath. In order that the bodies would not remain on the cross during the Sabbath, the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies removed.

    John 19:32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and those of the other.

    Full study and all 3 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.

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.