Word study
Shore
5 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: shore, shores. 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 “shore” 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)
- אִי îcoast, regiontranslated this way 4 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H339Noun · Translated: islands 14, coastlands 8, coasts 4, coastland 3Full study and all 35 verses →
Esther 10:1 Now King Xerxes imposed tribute throughout the land, even to its farthest shores.
Psalm 72:10 May the kings of Tarshish and distant shores bring tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts.
- שָׂפָה sâphâhlip, speech, edgetranslated this way 2 times of its 167 uses · Strong’s H8193Noun · Translated: lips 98, speech 12, rim 10, edge 9Full study and all 159 verses →
Exodus 14:30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.
1 Kings 9:26 King Solomon also assembled a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea.
- חוֹף chôphshore, coasttranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s H2348Noun · Translated: seashore 1, become a harbor 1, along the coast 1, coast 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Jeremiah 47:7 How can it rest when the LORD has commanded it? He has appointed it against Ashkelon and the shore of its coastland.”
- אֶרֶץ eretsearth, landtranslated this way 1 time of its 2,375 uses · Strong’s H776Noun · Translated: land 1,483, earth 564, ground 119, lands 41Full study and all 2,120 verses →
- עַל alheighttranslated this way 1 time of its 4,859 uses · Strong’s H5921Preposition · Translated: on 777, over 297, in 218, against 216Full study and all 3,996 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- γῆ gēthe earth, soil, landtranslated this way 3 times of its 238 uses · Strong’s G1093Noun · Translated: earth 156, land 37, ground 19, soil 13Full study and all 217 verses →
Mark 4:1 Once again Jesus began to teach beside the sea, and such a large crowd gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people crowded along the shore.
Luke 5:3 Jesus got into the boat belonging to Simon and asked him to put out a little from shore. And sitting down, He taught the people from the boat.
- αἰγιαλός aigialóssea-coast, beachtranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G123Noun · Translated: shore 2, beach 2, ashore 1, sandy beach 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Matthew 13:2 Such large crowds gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat down, while all the people stood on the shore.
John 21:4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not recognize that it was Jesus.
- ἄμμος ámmossandtranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s G285Noun · Translated: sand 4, shore 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was enraged at the woman and went to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea.
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.