Word study

Mist

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • עָנָן ânâncloud-mass, cloudtranslated this way 3 times of its 87 uses · Strong’s H6051Noun  ·  Translated: cloud 61, clouds 13, like a cloud 2, mist 2

    Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.

    Hosea 6:4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.

    Full study and all 80 verses →
  • אֵד êdmisttranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H108Noun  ·  Translated: springs 1, mist 1

    Job 36:27 For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist,

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • הֶבֶל hebelvapour, breathtranslated this way 1 time of its 73 uses · Strong’s H1892Noun  ·  Translated: futile 25, worthless idols 9, futility 8, fleeting 5

    Proverbs 21:6 Making a fortune by a lying tongue is a vanishing mist, a deadly pursuit.

    Full study and all 64 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἀχλύς achlýsa mist, dimnesstranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G887Noun  ·  Translated: mist 1, mists 1

    Acts 13:11 Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and for a time you will be blind and unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.

    2 Peter 2:17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • ἀτμίς atmísbreath, steam, vaportranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G822Noun  ·  Translated: billows 1, mist 1

    James 4:14 You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

    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.

What the Bible says about mist: 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.