Word study

Plain

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עֲרָבָה ărâbâhdesert-plain, steppetranslated this way 18 times of its 60 uses · Strong’s H6160Noun  ·  Translated: Arabah 24, plains 17, desert 8

    Numbers 22:1 Then the Israelites traveled on and camped in the plains of Moab near the Jordan, across from Jericho.

    Deuteronomy 34:1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho. And the LORD showed him the whole land — from Gilead as far as Dan,

    Full study and all 56 verses →
  • כִּכָּר kikkâra roundtranslated this way 10 times of its 68 uses · Strong’s H3603Noun  ·  Translated: talents 35, plain 10, talent 9, loaf 3

    Genesis 13:10 And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

    2 Samuel 18:23 “No matter what, I want to run!” he replied. “Then run!” Joab told him. So Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain and outran the Cushite.

    Full study and all 55 verses →
  • בִּקְעָה biqâhvalleytranslated this way 8 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s H1237Noun  ·  Translated: plain 8, Valley 7, valleys 4, Valley of Aven 1

    Genesis 11:2 And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.

    2 Chronicles 35:22 Josiah, however, did not turn away from him; instead, in order to engage him in battle, he disguised himself. He did not listen to Neco’s words from the mouth of God, but went to fight him on the Plain of Megiddo.

    Full study and all 20 verses →
  • מִישׁוֹר mîshôrlevel place, uprightnesstranslated this way 6 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H4334Noun  ·  Translated: plateau 8, plain 2, level ground 2, level 2

    1 Kings 20:23 Meanwhile, the servants of the king of Aram said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they prevailed over us. Instead, we should fight them on the plains; surely then we will prevail.

    2 Chronicles 26:10 Since he had much livestock in the foothills and in the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many cisterns. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hill country and in the fertile fields.

    Full study and all 23 verses →
  • עֵמֶק êmeqvaletranslated this way 2 times of its 68 uses · Strong’s H6010Noun  ·  Translated: Valley 53, valleys 10, end of the valley 1, plains 1

    Judges 1:19 The LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plains because they had chariots of iron.

    Judges 1:34 The Amorites forced the Danites into the hill country and did not allow them to come down into the plain.

    Full study and all 63 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.

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.