Word study

Sheaf

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עֹמֶר ômersheaftranslated this way 8 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H6016Noun  ·  Translated: omer 5, sheaf 5, sheaves 3, omers 1

    Leviticus 23:10 “Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest.

    Deuteronomy 24:19 If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

    Full study and all 14 verses →
  • אֲלֻמָּה ălummâhsheaftranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H485Noun  ·  Translated: sheaves 2, sheaves of grain 1, sheaf 1, to 1

    Genesis 37:7 We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.”

    Psalm 126:6 He who goes out weeping, bearing a trail of seed, will surely return with shouts of joy, carrying sheaves of grain.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • עָמִיר âmîrswath, row of fallen graintranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H5995Noun  ·  Translated: like newly cut grain 1, grain 1, like sheaves 1, sheaves 1

    Micah 4:12 But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD or understand His plan, for He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.

    Zechariah 12:6 On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • עָמַר âmarbind sheavestranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6014Verb  ·  Translated: treat her as a slave 1, treats him as a slave 1, binder of sheaves 1

    Psalm 129:7 unable to fill the hands of the reaper, or the arms of the binder of sheaves.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • גָּדִישׁ gâdîshheap, stacktranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H1430Noun  ·  Translated: stacked 1, piles of grain 1, like a sheaf of grain 1, tomb 1

    Job 5:26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like a sheaf of grain gathered in season.

    Full study and all 4 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.