Word study

Shadow

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • צֵל tsêlshadowtranslated this way 25 times of its 48 uses · Strong’s H6738Noun  ·  Translated: shade 18, shadow 17, like a shadow 3, protection 2

    Judges 9:36 When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Look, people are coming down from the mountains!” But Zebul replied, “The shadows of the mountains look like men to you.”

    2 Kings 20:9 And Isaiah had replied, “This will be a sign to you from the LORD that He will do what He has promised: Would you like the shadow to go forward ten steps, or back ten steps?”

    Full study and all 47 verses →
  • צַלְמָוֶת tsalmâvethdeath-shadow, deep shadowtranslated this way 9 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H6757Noun  ·  Translated: shadow of death 5, darkness 3, gloom 2, deep shadow 2

    Job 10:22 to a land of utter darkness, of deep shadow and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”

    Psalm 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • צֵלֶל tsêlelshadetranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H6752Noun  ·  Translated: shadows 3, shade 1

    Song of Solomon 2:17 Before the day breaks and shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.

    Jeremiah 6:4 ‘Prepare for battle against her; rise up, let us attack at noon. Woe to us, for the daylight is fading; the evening shadows grow long.

    Full study and all 4 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • σκιά skiáa shadow, thick darkness, an outlinetranslated this way 5 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G4639Noun  ·  Translated: shadow 5, shade 1, in 1

    Matthew 4:16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”

    Acts 5:15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.

    Full study and all 7 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.