Word study

Shaft

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “shaft”. 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 “shaft” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עֵץ êtstree, trees, woodtranslated this way 3 times of its 307 uses · Strong’s H6086Noun  ·  Translated: wood 103, trees 66, tree 58, timber 12

    2 Samuel 21:19 Once again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

    1 Chronicles 20:5 Once again there was a battle with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

    Full study and all 277 verses →
  • קָנֶה qânehstalk, reedtranslated this way 2 times of its 46 uses · Strong’s H7070Noun  ·  Translated: branches 9, rod 9, reeds 5, branch 4

    Exodus 25:31 Then you are to make a lampstand of pure, hammered gold. It shall be made of one piece, including its base and shaft, its cups, and its buds and petals.

    Exodus 37:17 Then he made the lampstand out of pure hammered gold, all of one piece: its base and shaft, its cups, and its buds and petals.

    Full study and all 37 verses →
  • חֵץ chêtsarrowtranslated this way 1 time of its 52 uses · Strong’s H2671Noun  ·  Translated: arrows 34, arrow 12, like arrows 2, make my arrows 1

    1 Samuel 17:7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. In addition, his shield bearer went before him.

    Full study and all 49 verses →
  • צִנּוּר tsinnûrpipe, spout, conduittranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H6794Noun  ·  Translated: use the water shaft 1, waterfalls 1

    2 Samuel 5:8 On that day he said, “Whoever attacks the Jebusites must use the water shaft to reach the lame and blind who are despised by David.” That is why it is said, “The blind and the lame will never enter the palace.”

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • נַחַל nachaltorrent, torrent-valley, wadytranslated this way 1 time of its 138 uses · Strong’s H5158Noun  ·  Translated: Valley 49, Brook 26, river 17, streams 8

    Job 28:4 Far from human habitation he cuts a shaft in places forgotten by the foot of man. Far from men he dangles and sways.

    Full study and all 123 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.