Word study

Provision

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • צֵידָה tsêdâhid.translated this way 8 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H6720Noun  ·  Translated: provisions 8, food 1

    Genesis 42:25 Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to return each man’s silver to his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. This order was carried out,

    Exodus 12:39 Since their dough had no leaven, the people baked what they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened loaves. For when they had been driven out of Egypt, they could not delay and had not prepared any provisions for themselves.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • מָזוֹן mâzônfood, sustenancetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4202Noun  ·  Translated: provisions 2

    Genesis 45:23 And he sent to his father the following: ten donkeys loaded with the best of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and provisions for his father’s journey.

    2 Chronicles 11:23 Rehoboam also acted wisely by dispersing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions and sought many wives for them.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • צַיִד tsayidhunting, gametranslated this way 2 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H6718Noun  ·  Translated: game 8, hunter 3, provisions 2, food 2

    Joshua 9:14 Then the men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not seek the counsel of the LORD.

    Psalm 132:15 I will bless her with abundant provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.

    Full study and all 18 verses →
  • לֶחֶם lechembread, foodtranslated this way 2 times of its 277 uses · Strong’s H3899Noun  ·  Translated: bread 150, food 98, meal 6, showbread 4

    1 Kings 4:22 Solomon’s provisions for a single day were thirty cors of fine flour, sixty cors of meal,

    Proverbs 6:8 it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food at harvest.

    Full study and all 260 verses →
  • כּוּן kûnbe firmtranslated this way 2 times of its 213 uses · Strong’s H3559Verb  ·  Translated: established 43, prepared 23, prepare 16, establish 15

    1 Chronicles 29:2 Now with all my ability I have made provision for the house of my God — gold for the gold articles, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron, and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones, and slabs of marble — all in abundance.

    1 Chronicles 29:19 And give my son Solomon a whole heart to keep and carry out all Your commandments, decrees, and statutes, and to build Your palace for which I have made provision.”

    Full study and all 204 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.