Word study
Palace
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: palace, palaces. 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 “palace” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- בַּיִת bayithhousetranslated this way 119 times of its 1,913 uses · Strong’s H1004Noun · Translated: house 1,132, temple 176, palace 117, household 93Full study and all 1,624 verses →
Genesis 12:15 When Pharaoh’s officials saw Sarai, they commended her to him, and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh.
Exodus 7:23 Instead, Pharaoh turned around, went into his palace, and did not take any of this to heart.
- הֵיכָל hêkâlpalace, templetranslated this way 11 times of its 78 uses · Strong’s H1964Noun · Translated: temple 56, palace 7, outer sanctuary 6, palaces 4Full study and all 74 verses →
1 Kings 21:1 Some time after these events, Naboth the Jezreelite owned a vineyard in Jezreel next to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
2 Kings 20:18 And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood, will be taken away to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
- אַרְמוֹן armôncitadeltranslated this way 6 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H759Noun · Translated: citadels 17, palaces 4, fortresses 3, citadel 2Full study and all 31 verses →
2 Chronicles 36:19 Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value.
Isaiah 23:13 Look at the land of the Chaldeans— a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They brought it to ruin.
- הֵיכַל hêkalpalace, templetranslated this way 5 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H1965Noun · Translated: temple 7, palace 4, roof of the royal palace 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Ezra 4:14 Now because we are in the service of the palace and it is not fitting for us to allow the king to be dishonored, we have sent to inform the king
Daniel 4:4 I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace.
- בִּיתָן bîthânhouse, palacetranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H1055Noun · Translated: palace 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Esther 1:5 At the end of this time, in the garden court of the royal palace, the king held a seven-day feast for all the people in the citadel of Susa, from the least to the greatest.
Esther 7:7 In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him.
- מֶלֶךְ melekkingtranslated this way 2 times of its 2,416 uses · Strong’s H4428Noun · Translated: king 1,810, kings 267, king's 134, royal 58Full study and all 1,901 verses →
- בִּירָה bîrâhcastle, palacetranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H1002Noun · Translated: citadel 13, palace 2, fortress 1Full study and all 16 verses →
1 Chronicles 29:1 Then King David said to the whole assembly, “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great because this palace is not for man, but for the LORD God.
1 Chronicles 29:19 And give my son Solomon a whole heart to keep and carry out all Your commandments, decrees, and statutes, and to build Your palace for which I have made provision.”
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 palace: 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.