Word study

Renown

6 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • שֵׁם shêmnametranslated this way 7 times of its 769 uses · Strong’s H8034Noun  ·  Translated: name 553, names 65, named 61, him 20

    Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days— and afterward as well— when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.

    Numbers 16:2 a rebellion against Moses, along with 250 men of Israel renowned as leaders of the congregation and representatives in the assembly.

    Full study and all 703 verses →
  • זֵכֶר zêkerremembrance, memorialtranslated this way 5 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H2143Noun  ·  Translated: memory 11, remembered 3, renown 3, name 2

    Psalm 102:12 But You, O LORD, sit enthroned forever; Your renown endures to all generations.

    Isaiah 26:8 Yes, we wait for You, O LORD; we walk in the path of Your judgments. Your name and renown are the desire of our souls.

    Full study and all 23 verses →
  • כָּבַד kâbadbe heavy, weighty, burdensome, honouredtranslated this way 2 times of its 109 uses · Strong’s H3513Verb  ·  Translated: honor 19, honored 11, heavy 10, hardened 6

    Isaiah 23:8 Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

    Isaiah 23:9 The LORD of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

    Full study and all 105 verses →
  • קָרָא qârâcall, proclaim, readtranslated this way 1 time of its 709 uses · Strong’s H7121Verb  ·  Translated: called 211, call 104, named 58, summoned 50Full study and all 663 verses →
  • הָלַל hâlalshinetranslated this way 1 time of its 165 uses · Strong’s H1984Verb  ·  Translated: praise 65, Hallelujah 24, praised 14, boast 9

    Ezekiel 26:17 Then they will lament for you, saying, “How you have perished, O city of renown inhabited by seafaring men— she who was powerful on the sea, along with her people, who imposed terror on all peoples!

    Full study and all 140 verses →
  • זֶה zehthis, thattranslated this way 1 time of its 984 uses · Strong’s H2088Pronoun  ·  Translated: this 478, in this 42, these 39, of this 27Full study and all 913 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.