Word study

Seven

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • שֶׁבַע shebaseventranslated this way 271 times of its 333 uses · Strong’s H7651Number  ·  Translated: seven 257, seventh 9, seventeenth 6, seventeen 5

    Genesis 7:2 You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate;

    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.

    Full study and all 297 verses →
  • שִׁבְעָה shibâhtranslated this way 6 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H7655Number  ·  Translated: seven 4, seven times 1, till seven 1

    Ezra 7:14 You are sent by the king and his seven counselors to evaluate Judah and Jerusalem according to the Law of your God, which is in your hand.

    Daniel 3:19 At this, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave orders to heat the furnace seven times hotter than usual,

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • שִׁבְעָתַיִם shibâthayimseven-fold, seven timestranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H7659Number  ·  Translated: sevenfold 5, seven 1, seven times brighter 1

    2 Samuel 21:9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

    Isaiah 30:26 The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter— like the light of seven days— on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.

    Full study and all 7 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἑπτά heptáseventranslated this way 85 times of its 87 uses · Strong’s G2033Adjective  ·  Translated: seven 85, seventh 1, week 1

    Matthew 12:45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the final plight of that man is worse than the first. So will it be with this wicked generation.”

    Mark 8:5 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied.

    Full study and all 62 verses →
  • ἑπτάκις heptákisseven timestranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G2034Adverb  ·  Translated: seven times 4

    Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

    Luke 17:4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

    Full study and all 3 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.

What the Bible says about seven: 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.