Word study

Omen

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נַחַשׁ nachashdivination, enchantmenttranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H5173Noun  ·  Translated: spell 1, omens 1

    Numbers 24:1 And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not seek omens as on previous occasions, but he turned his face toward the wilderness.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • נָחַשׁ nâchashhiss, whisper, prognosticatetranslated this way 1 time of its 9 uses · Strong’s H5172Verb  ·  Translated: divination 2

    Deuteronomy 18:10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • מוֹפֵת môphêthwonder, sign, portenttranslated this way 1 time of its 36 uses · Strong’s H4159Noun  ·  Translated: wonders 17, sign 8, wonder 4, marvels 2

    Isaiah 20:3 Then the LORD said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush,

    Full study and all 35 verses →
  • קֶסֶם qesemdivinationtranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s H7081Noun  ·  Translated: divination 4

    Ezekiel 21:21 For the king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He shakes the arrows, he consults the idols, he examines the liver.

    Full study and all 11 verses →
  • קָסַם qâsampractise divinationtranslated this way 1 time of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7080Verb  ·  Translated: diviners 7, divinations 3

    Ezekiel 21:23 It will seem like a false omen to the eyes of those who have sworn allegiance to him, but it will draw attention to their guilt and take them captive.

    Full study and all 19 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.