Word study
Owl
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: owl, owls. 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 “owl” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- קָאַת qâathpelicantranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6893Noun · Translated: desert owl 4, owl 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Leviticus 11:18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey,
Deuteronomy 14:17 the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant,
- כּוֹס kôscuptranslated this way 3 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H3563Noun · Translated: cup 28, little owl 2, like an owl 1, and 1Full study and all 27 verses →
Leviticus 11:17 the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl,
Deuteronomy 14:16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
- יַנְשׁוּף yanshûphunclean, bird, herontranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H3244Noun · Translated: great owl 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Leviticus 11:17 the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl,
Deuteronomy 14:16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
- קִפּוֹד qippôdporcupinetranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H7090Noun · Translated: screech owl 2, owls 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Isaiah 14:23 “I will make her a place for owls and for swamplands; I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
Zephaniah 2:14 Herds will lie down in her midst, creatures of every kind. Both the desert owl and screech owl will roost atop her pillars. Their calls will sound from the window, but desolation will lie on the threshold, for He will expose the beams of cedar.
- תַּחְמָס tachmâsmale ostrichtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8464Noun · Translated: screech owl 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Leviticus 11:16 the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
Deuteronomy 14:15 the ostrich, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk,
- תַּנְשֶׁמֶת tanshemethhard breather, lizard, birdtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H8580Noun · Translated: white owl 2, chameleon 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Leviticus 11:18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey,
Deuteronomy 14:16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,
- קִפּוֹז qippôzarrow-snaketranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H7091Noun · Translated: owl 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Isaiah 34:15 There the owl will make her nest; she will lay and hatch her eggs and gather her brood under her shadow. Even there the birds of prey will gather, each with its mate.
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.
What the Bible says about owl: 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.