Word study
Plant
10 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: plant, planted, plants, planting. 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 “plant” 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)
- נָטַע nâṭastrike, fix, planttranslated this way 46 times of its 57 uses · Strong’s H5193Verb · Translated: plant 28, planted 15, plants 2, establish 2Full study and all 55 verses →
Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.
Exodus 15:17 You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of Your inheritance — the place, O LORD, You have prepared for Your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, Your hands have established.
- עֶשֶׂב esebherb, herbagetranslated this way 18 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H6212Noun · Translated: plant 9, plants 7, grass 6, like the grass 2Full study and all 31 verses →
Genesis 1:11 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each bearing fruit with seed according to its kind.” And it was so.
Exodus 9:22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that hail may fall on all the land of Egypt— on man and beast and every plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt.”
- שָׁתַל shâthaltransplanttranslated this way 9 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H8362Verb · Translated: planted 7, plant 2, Even if it is transplanted 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Psalm 1:3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.
Jeremiah 17:8 He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.
- זָרַע zârasow, scatter seedtranslated this way 5 times of its 53 uses · Strong’s H2232Verb · Translated: sow 26, sown 7, seed-bearing 2, sowed 2Full study and all 52 verses →
Deuteronomy 22:9 Do not plant your vineyard with two types of seed; if you do, the entire harvest will be defiled — both the crop you plant and the fruit of your vineyard.
Judges 6:3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,
- קִיקָיוֹן qîqâyônricinustranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7021Noun · Translated: plant 4, vine 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Jonah 4:6 So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.
Jonah 4:7 When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.
- מַטָּע maṭṭâplace, or act of planting; plantationtranslated this way 4 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H4302Noun · Translated: planting 3, base 1, garden 1, planting area 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Isaiah 60:21 Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever; they are the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, so that I may be glorified.
Ezekiel 17:7 But there was another great eagle with great wings and many feathers. And behold, this vine bent its roots toward him. It stretched out its branches to him from its planting bed, so that he might water it.
- צֶאֶל tseellotus treetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H6628Noun · Translated: lotus plants 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Job 40:21 He lies under the lotus plants, hidden among the reeds of the marsh.
Job 40:22 The lotus plants conceal him in their shade; the willows of the brook surround him.
- שׂוּם sûmput, place, settranslated this way 2 times of its 560 uses · Strong’s H7760Verb · Translated: put 84, set 71, make 45, made 39Full study and all 533 verses →
- נֶטַע neṭaplantation, planting, planttranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H5194Noun · Translated: plant 2, sapling 1, plots 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
Isaiah 17:11 though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout — yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.
- נָתַן nâthangive, put, settranslated this way 2 times of its 1,957 uses · Strong’s H5414Verb · Translated: give 326, gave 206, given 187, put 135Full study and all 1,785 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- φυτεύω phyteúōI planttranslated this way 11 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G5452Verb · Translated: planted 7, plants 3, planting 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Matthew 15:13 But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.
Mark 12:1 Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
- λάχανον láchanonan herb, garden planttranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G3001Noun · Translated: garden plants 2, herb 1, vegetables 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Matthew 13:32 Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
Mark 4:32 But after it is planted, it grows to be the largest of all garden plants and puts forth great branches, so that the birds of the air nest in its shade.”
- σπείρω speírōI sow, spread, scattertranslated this way 2 times of its 52 uses · Strong’s G4687Verb · Translated: sown 18, sows 9, sow 8, farmer 4Full study and all 42 verses →
Matthew 13:31 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his field.
Mark 4:32 But after it is planted, it grows to be the largest of all garden plants and puts forth great branches, so that the birds of the air nest in its shade.”
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.
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.