Word study

Lightning

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “lightning”. 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 “lightning” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • בָּרָק bârâqlightningtranslated this way 17 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H1300Noun  ·  Translated: lightning 10, flash like lightning 3, like lightning 2, shining 2

    Exodus 19:16 On the third day, when morning came, there was thunder and lightning. A thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very loud blast of the ram’s horn went out, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

    2 Samuel 22:15 He shot His arrows and scattered the foes; He hurled lightning and routed them.

    Full study and all 21 verses →
  • אוֹר ôrlighttranslated this way 7 times of its 119 uses · Strong’s H216Noun  ·  Translated: light 86, lightning 5, dawn 3, daylight 3

    Job 36:30 See how He scatters His lightning around Him and covers the depths of the sea.

    Hosea 6:5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgments go forth like lightning.

    Full study and all 108 verses →
  • אֵשׁ êshfiretranslated this way 4 times of its 313 uses · Strong’s H784Noun  ·  Translated: fire 256, like fire 11, fiery 8, burning 6

    Exodus 9:23 So Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. So the LORD rained down hail upon the land of Egypt.

    Psalm 105:32 He gave them hail for rain, with lightning throughout their land.

    Full study and all 289 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἀστραπή astrapḗa flash of lightning, brightness, lustertranslated this way 8 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G796Noun  ·  Translated: lightning 4, flashes of lightning 4, shining 1

    Matthew 24:27 For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

    Luke 10:18 So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

    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 lightning: 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.