Word study

Pillar

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עַמּוּד ammûdpillar, columntranslated this way 64 times of its 104 uses · Strong’s H5982Noun  ·  Translated: pillars 37, posts 34, pillar 27, foundations 2

    Exodus 13:21 And the LORD went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide their way by day, and in a pillar of fire to give them light by night, so that they could travel by day or night.

    Numbers 12:5 and the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud, stood at the entrance to the Tent, and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them had stepped forward,

    Full study and all 84 verses →
  • מַצֵּבָה matstsêbâhpillar, maƒƒ¢b¹ , stumptranslated this way 27 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H4676Noun  ·  Translated: sacred pillars 10, pillar 9, sacred pillar 4, pillars 3

    Genesis 28:18 Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone that he had placed under his head, and he set it up as a pillar. He poured oil on top of it,

    Exodus 24:4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. Early the next morning he got up and built an altar at the base of the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

    Full study and all 31 verses →
  • אַיִל ayilramtranslated this way 13 times of its 178 uses · Strong’s H352Noun  ·  Translated: ram 89, rams 59, side pillars 12, like rams 3

    Ezekiel 40:16 The gate chambers and their side pillars had beveled windows all around the inside of the gateway. The porticos also had windows all around on the inside. Each side pillar was decorated with palm trees.

    Ezekiel 40:21 Its three gate chambers on each side, its side pillars, and its portico all had the same measurements as the first gate: fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.

    Full study and all 169 verses →
  • מַצֶּבֶת matstsebethstationary, stone, stocktranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H4678Noun  ·  Translated: pillar 2, marker 1, marks 1, leave stumps 1

    2 Samuel 18:18 During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • אֵל êlmotion totranslated this way 2 times of its 4,199 uses · Strong’s H413Preposition  ·  Translated: to 1,941, to me 285, to you 149, to him 137Full study and all 3,455 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • στῦλος stŷlosa pillartranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G4769Noun  ·  Translated: pillars 2, pillar 2

    Galatians 2:9 And recognizing the grace that I had been given, James, Cephas, and John — those reputed to be pillars — gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.

    1 Timothy 3:15 in case I am delayed, so that you will know how each one must conduct himself in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

    Full study and all 4 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 pillar: 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.