Word study
Priest
5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: priest, priests. 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 “priest” 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)
- כֹּהֵן kôhênpriesttranslated this way 708 times of its 726 uses · Strong’s H3548Noun · Translated: priest 387, priests 285, way the priest 8, priestly 5Full study and all 646 verses →
Genesis 14:18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine — since he was priest of God Most High —
Exodus 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.
- כָּהַן kâhanact as priesttranslated this way 21 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H3547Verb · Translated: serve me as priests 8, serve as priests 4, priests 3, served as priests 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Exodus 28:1 “Next, have your brother Aaron brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, to serve Me as priests.
Leviticus 7:35 This is the portion of the food offerings to the LORD for Aaron and his sons since the day they were presented to serve the LORD as priests.
- כָּהֵן kâhênpriesttranslated this way 8 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H3549Noun · Translated: priests 5, priest 2, including the priests 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Ezra 6:9 Whatever is needed— young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem— must be given to them daily without fail.
Ezra 6:16 Then the people of Israel — the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles — celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.
- לֹא lônottranslated this way 3 times of its 4,657 uses · Strong’s H3808Adverb · Translated: no 309, not 269, never 218, will not 156Full study and all 3,775 verses →
- כָּמָר kâmâr(idol-)priesttranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H3649Noun · Translated: idolatrous priests 2, idolatrous 1Full study and all 3 verses →
2 Kings 23:5 Josiah also did away with the idolatrous priests ordained by the kings of Judah to burn incense on the high places of the cities of Judah and in the places all around Jerusalem — those who had burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven.
Hosea 10:5 The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn over it with its idolatrous priests — those who rejoiced in its glory — for it has been taken from them into exile.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀρχιερεύς archiereúshigh priest, chief priesttranslated this way 120 times of its 122 uses · Strong’s G749Noun · Translated: chief priests 64, high priest 52, high priesthood 2, high priests 2Full study and all 119 verses →
Matthew 2:4 And when he had assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.
Mark 8:31 Then He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that He must be killed and after three days rise again.
- ἱερεύς hiereúsa priesttranslated this way 31 times of its 31 uses · Strong’s G2409Noun · Translated: priest 16, priests 15Full study and all 31 verses →
Matthew 8:4 Then Jesus instructed him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift prescribed by Moses, as a testimony to them.”
Mark 1:44 “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and present the offering Moses prescribed for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
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.
What the Bible says about priest: 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.