Word study
Sheepfold
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sheepfolds, sheepfold. 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 “sheepfold” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מִשְׁפָּת mishpâthstalltranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4942Noun · Translated: sheepfolds 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Genesis 49:14 Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds.
Judges 5:16 Why did you sit among the sheepfolds to hear the whistling for the flocks? In the clans of Reuben there was great indecision.
- גְּדֵרָה gedêrâhwalltranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H1448Noun · Translated: folds 2, walls 2, sheepfolds 1, built folds 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Numbers 32:16 Then the Gadites and Reubenites approached Moses and said, “We want to build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our little ones.
- צֹאן tsônsmall cattle, sheep and goats, flock, flockstranslated this way 1 time of its 259 uses · Strong’s H6629Noun · Translated: sheep 89, flock 76, flocks 63, like sheep 8Full study and all 238 verses →
1 Samuel 24:3 Soon Saul came to the sheepfolds along the road, where there was a cave, and he went in to relieve himself. And David and his men were hiding in the recesses of the cave.
- שָׁפָת shâphâthstall, hooktranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8240Noun · Translated: sheepfolds 1, double-pronged hooks 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Psalm 68:13 Though you lie down among the sheepfolds, the wings of the dove are covered with silver, and her feathers with shimmering gold.”
- מִכְלָאָה miklââhpentranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4356Noun · Translated: pens 1, sheepfolds 1, fold 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Psalm 78:70 He chose David His servant and took him from the sheepfolds;
Greek words (New Testament)
- πρόβατον próbatona sheeptranslated this way 1 time of its 39 uses · Strong’s G4263Noun · Translated: sheep 37, sheep's 1, sheepfold 1Full study and all 37 verses →
John 10:1 “Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber.
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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.