Word study

Livestock

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מִקְנֶה miqnehcattletranslated this way 50 times of its 69 uses · Strong’s H4735Noun  ·  Translated: livestock 45, cattle 5, flocks 3, herds 3

    Genesis 13:2 And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.

    Exodus 9:3 then the hand of the LORD will bring a severe plague on your livestock in the field— on your horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks.

    Full study and all 61 verses →
  • בְּהֵמָה behêmâhbeast, animal, cattletranslated this way 45 times of its 186 uses · Strong’s H929Noun  ·  Translated: livestock 45, beast 43, animal 32, animals 21

    Genesis 1:24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, land crawlers, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.

    Exodus 12:29 Now at midnight the LORD struck down every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on his throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner in the dungeon, as well as all the firstborn among the livestock.

    Full study and all 171 verses →
  • בְּעִיר beîrbeasts, cattletranslated this way 3 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H1165Noun  ·  Translated: livestock 3, animals 1, allows 1, cattle 1

    Numbers 20:4 Why have you brought the LORD’s assembly into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here?

    Numbers 20:8 “Take the staff and assemble the congregation. You and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock while they watch, and it will pour out its water. You will bring out water from the rock and provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.”

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • בָּקָר bâqârcattle, herd, oxtranslated this way 2 times of its 142 uses · Strong’s H1241Noun  ·  Translated: oxen 49, herds 32, cattle 25, herd 12

    Numbers 7:87 All the livestock for the burnt offering totaled twelve bulls, twelve rams, and twelve male lambs a year old — together with their grain offerings — and twelve male goats for the sin offering.

    Numbers 7:88 All the livestock sacrificed for the peace offering totaled twenty-four bulls, sixty rams, sixty male goats, and sixty male lambs a year old. This was the dedication offering for the altar after it was anointed.

    Full study and all 135 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.