Word study

Marketplace

2 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • חוּץ chûtsthe outsidetranslated this way 1 time of its 156 uses · Strong’s H2351Noun  ·  Translated: outside 70, streets 38, out 11, street 11

    1 Kings 20:34 Ben-hadad said to him, “I will restore the cities my father took from your father; you may set up your own marketplaces in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.” “By this treaty I release you,” Ahab replied. So he made a treaty with him and sent him away.

    Full study and all 152 verses →
  • מַרְכֹּלֶת markôlethplace of trade, market-placetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H4819Noun  ·  Translated: marketplace 1

    Ezekiel 27:24 In your marketplace they traded with you fine garments of blue, embroidered work, and multicolored rugs with cords tightly twisted and knotted.

    Full study and its 1 verse →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἀγορά agorámarket-placetranslated this way 10 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G58Noun  ·  Translated: marketplaces 6, marketplace 4, market 1

    Matthew 11:16 To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others:

    Mark 6:56 And wherever He went — villages and towns and countrysides — they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.

    Full study and all 11 verses →
  • οἶκος oîkosa house, householdtranslated this way 1 time of its 109 uses · Strong’s G3624Noun  ·  Translated: house 59, home 25, household 14, family 4

    John 2:16 To those selling doves He said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn My Father’s house into a marketplace!”

    Full study and all 101 verses →
  • ἀγοραῖος agoraîosa lounger in the market-placetranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G60Adjective  ·  Translated: marketplace 1, courts 1

    Acts 17:5 The Jews, however, became jealous. So they brought in some troublemakers from the marketplace, formed a mob, and sent the city into an uproar. They raided Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas, hoping to bring them out to the people.

    Full study and all 2 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.