Word study

Position

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מָקוֹם mâqômstanding, spot, conditiontranslated this way 4 times of its 381 uses · Strong’s H4725Noun  ·  Translated: place 279, home 16, places 11, wherever 7

    Joshua 3:3 and commanded the people: “When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, you are to set out from your positions and follow it.

    Judges 20:33 So all the men of Israel got up from their places and arrayed themselves at Baal-tamar, and the Israelites in ambush charged from their positions west of Gibeah.

    Full study and all 364 verses →
  • יָצַב yâtsabset or station oneself, take one's standtranslated this way 3 times of its 47 uses · Strong’s H3320Verb  ·  Translated: stand 10, stood 7, present 7, able to stand 3

    2 Chronicles 20:17 You need not fight this battle. Take up your positions, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out and face them tomorrow, for the LORD is with you.’”

    Jeremiah 46:4 Harness the horses; mount the steeds; take your positions with helmets on! Polish your spears; put on armor!

    Full study and all 44 verses →
  • כֵּן kênright, veritable, honesttranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H3653Noun  ·  Translated: stand 8, place 4, position 2, pedestal 2

    Genesis 40:13 Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore your position. You will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you did when you were his cupbearer.

    Genesis 41:13 And it happened to us just as he had interpreted: I was restored to my position, and the other man was hanged.”

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • שׂוּם sûmput, place, settranslated this way 2 times of its 560 uses · Strong’s H7760Verb  ·  Translated: put 84, set 71, make 45, made 39

    Exodus 40:18 When Moses set up the tabernacle, he laid its bases, positioned its frames, inserted its crossbars, and set up its posts.

    Full study and all 533 verses →
  • עָרַךְ ârakarrange or set in ordertranslated this way 2 times of its 75 uses · Strong’s H6186Verb  ·  Translated: arrayed 14, prepared 5, compare 5, set 4

    Judges 20:20 And the men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin and took up their battle positions at Gibeah.

    Judges 20:22 But the Israelite army took courage and again took their battle positions in the same place where they had arrayed themselves on the first day.

    Full study and all 71 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.