Word study

Rocky

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “rocky”. 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 “rocky” 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)

  • צוּר tsûrrock, clifftranslated this way 3 times of its 77 uses · Strong’s H6697Noun  ·  Translated: rock 56, rocks 8, flint 2

    Numbers 23:9 For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.

    Jeremiah 18:14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave its rocky slopes? Or do its cool waters flowing from a distance ever run dry?

    Full study and all 73 verses →
  • סֶלַע selacrag, clifftranslated this way 1 time of its 54 uses · Strong’s H5553Noun  ·  Translated: rock 30, rocks 11, cliffs 5, cliff 3

    Job 39:28 He dwells on a cliff and lodges there; his stronghold is on a rocky crag.

    Full study and all 51 verses →
  • אֶבֶן ebenstonetranslated this way 1 time of its 242 uses · Strong’s H68Noun  ·  Translated: stones 92, stone 86, gemstones 7, weights 5

    Isaiah 14:19 But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot.

    Full study and all 217 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πετρώδης petrṓdēsrocky, stonytranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G4075Adjective  ·  Translated: rocky ground 4

    Matthew 13:5 Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.

    Mark 4:5 Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • πέτρα pétrarocktranslated this way 2 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s G4073Noun  ·  Translated: rock 10, rocks 3, rocky ground 2

    Luke 8:6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the seedlings withered because they had no moisture.

    Luke 8:13 The seeds on rocky ground are those who hear the word and receive it with joy, but they have no root. They believe for a season, but in the time of testing, they fall away.

    Full study and all 14 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.