Word study

Pen

6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עֵט êṭstylustranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H5842Noun  ·  Translated: stylus 2, pen 2

    Psalm 45:1 For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lilies.” A Maskil of the sons of Korah. A love song. My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses to the king; my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.

    Jeremiah 8:8 How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us,’ when in fact the lying pen of the scribes has produced a deception?

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • בַּיִת bayithhousetranslated this way 1 time of its 1,913 uses · Strong’s H1004Noun  ·  Translated: house 1,132, temple 176, palace 117, household 93Full study and all 1,624 verses →
  • בׇּצְרָה botsrâhenclosure, i.e. (sheep-) foldtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H1223Noun  ·  Translated: pen 1

    Micah 2:12 I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in the midst of its pasture — a noisy throng.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • כָּלָא kâlâshut up, restrain, withholdtranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H3607Verb  ·  Translated: restrained 3, withhold 2, kept 2, imprisoned 2

    1 Samuel 6:10 So the men did as instructed. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • אֲוֵרָה ăvêrâhmanger, cribtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H220Noun  ·  Translated: pens 1

    2 Chronicles 32:28 He also made storehouses for the harvest of grain and new wine and oil, stalls for all kinds of livestock, and pens for the flocks.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • מִכְלָאָה miklââhpentranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4356Noun  ·  Translated: pens 1, sheepfolds 1, fold 1

    Psalm 50:9 I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,

    Full study and all 3 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κεραία keraíaan apostrophetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G2762Noun  ·  Translated: stroke of a pen 2

    Matthew 5:18 For I tell you truly, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single jot, not a stroke of a pen, will disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

    Luke 16:17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • κάλαμος kálamosa reed, reed-pentranslated this way 1 time of its 12 uses · Strong’s G2563Noun  ·  Translated: reed 5, staff 3, rod 2, pen 1

    3 John 1:13 I have many things to write to you, but I would prefer not to do so with pen and ink.

    Full study and all 12 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 pen: 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.