Word study
Outpost
5 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: outpost, outposts. 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 “outpost” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מַצָּב matstsâbstanding-place, station, garrisontranslated this way 5 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H4673Noun · Translated: outpost 4, garrison 2, stood 1, Even those in the outposts 1Full study and all 9 verses →
1 Samuel 14:1 One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let us cross over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But Jonathan did not tell his father.
1 Samuel 14:4 Now there were cliffs on both sides of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost. One was named Bozez and the other Seneh.
- נְצִיב netsîbpillar, prefecttranslated this way 3 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H5333Noun · Translated: garrisons 4, outpost 3, pillar 1, governor 1Full study and all 11 verses →
1 Samuel 10:5 After that you will come to Gibeah of God, where the Philistines have an outpost. As you approach the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, preceded by harps, tambourines, flutes, and lyres, and they will be prophesying.
1 Samuel 13:3 Then Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. So Saul blew the ram’s horn throughout the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear!”
- קָצֶה qâtsehend, extremitytranslated this way 1 time of its 88 uses · Strong’s H7097Noun · Translated: end 25, ends 14, edge 9, outskirts 6Full study and all 81 verses →
Judges 7:11 and listen to what they are saying. Then your hands will be strengthened to attack the camp.” So he went with Purah his servant to the outposts where armed men were guarding the camp.
- מָלוֹן mâlônlodging-place, inn, khantranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H4411Noun · Translated: place where they lodged for the night 1, place we lodged for the night 1, lodging place 1, place 1Full study and all 8 verses →
2 Kings 19:23 Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest outposts, the densest of its forests.
- מַצָּבָה matstsâbâhguard, watch ?translated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4675Noun · Translated: outpost 1, army 1Full study and all 2 verses →
1 Samuel 14:12 So the men of the outpost called out to Jonathan and his armor-bearer, “Come on up, and we will teach you a lesson!” “Follow me,” Jonathan told his armor-bearer, “for the LORD has delivered them into the hand of Israel.”
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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.