Word study

Moon

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • יָרֵחַ yârêachmoontranslated this way 27 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H3394Noun  ·  Translated: moon 26, like the moon 1

    Genesis 37:9 Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

    Deuteronomy 4:19 When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars— all the host of heaven— do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

    Full study and all 27 verses →
  • חֹדֶשׁ chôdesh(newness), new moon, monthtranslated this way 22 times of its 254 uses · Strong’s H2320Noun  ·  Translated: month 165, months 31, day 18, New Moon 11

    Numbers 28:14 Their drink offerings shall be half a hin of wine with each bull, a third of a hin with the ram, and a quarter hin with each lamb. This is the monthly burnt offering to be made at each new moon throughout the year.

    1 Samuel 20:5 So David told him, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon, and I am supposed to dine with the king. Instead, let me go and hide in the field until the third evening from now.

    Full study and all 219 verses →
  • כֶּסֶא kesefull moontranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H3677Noun  ·  Translated: full moon 1, moon 1

    Psalm 81:3 Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon, and at the full moon on the day of our Feast.

    Proverbs 7:20 He took with him a bag of money and will not return till the moon is full.”

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • לְבָנָה lebânâhmoontranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H3842Noun  ·  Translated: moon 2

    Song of Solomon 6:10 Who is this who shines like the dawn, as fair as the moon, as bright as the sun, as majestic as the stars in procession?

    Isaiah 24:23 The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders with great glory.

    Full study and all 2 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • σελήνη selḗnēthe moontranslated this way 9 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G4582Noun  ·  Translated: moon 9

    Matthew 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’

    Mark 13:24 But in those days, after that tribulation: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;

    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 moon: 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.