Word study
Plate
5 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: plate, plates, plating, plated. 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 “plate” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- קְעָרָה qeârâhdish, plattertranslated this way 3 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H7086Noun · Translated: platter 13, plates 3, platters 1Full study and all 17 verses →
Exodus 25:29 You are also to make the plates and dishes, as well as the pitchers and bowls for pouring drink offerings. Make them out of pure gold.
Numbers 4:7 Over the table of the Presence they are to spread a blue cloth and place the plates and cups on it, along with the bowls and pitchers for the drink offering. The regular bread offering is to remain on it.
- צִיץ tsîtsblossom, flower.translated this way 3 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H6731Noun · Translated: flowers 6, plate 3, Like a flower 2, flower 1Full study and all 14 verses →
Exodus 28:36 You are to make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal: HOLY TO THE LORD.
Leviticus 8:9 Moses also put the turban on Aaron’s head and set the gold plate, the holy diadem, on the front of the turban, as the LORD had commanded him.
- צִפּוּי tsippûyplatingtranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6826Noun · Translated: plating 2, overlay 2, silver-plated 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Exodus 38:17 The bases for the posts were bronze, the hooks and bands were silver, and the plating for the tops of the posts was silver. So all the posts of the courtyard were banded with silver.
Isaiah 30:22 So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”
- מַחֲבַת machăbathflat plate, pan, or griddletranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s H4227Noun · Translated: griddle 3, baking 1, plate 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Ezekiel 4:3 Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.
- צָפָה tsâphâhlay out, lay overtranslated this way 1 time of its 45 uses · Strong’s H6823Verb · Translated: overlaid 29, overlay 11Full study and all 40 verses →
2 Kings 18:16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold with which he had plated the doors and doorposts of the temple of the LORD, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.
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.