Word study

Sign

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sign, signs, signed, signing. 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 “sign” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אוֹת ôthsigntranslated this way 70 times of its 78 uses · Strong’s H226Noun  ·  Translated: sign 40, signs 27, miraculous signs 2, banners 2

    Genesis 1:14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years.

    Exodus 3:12 “I will surely be with you,” God said, “and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain.”

    Full study and all 77 verses →
  • מוֹפֵת môphêthwonder, sign, portenttranslated this way 9 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H4159Noun  ·  Translated: wonders 17, sign 8, wonder 4, marvels 2

    1 Kings 13:3 That day the man of God gave a sign, saying, “The LORD has spoken this sign: ‘Surely the altar will be split apart, and the ashes upon it will be poured out.’”

    2 Chronicles 32:24 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. So he prayed to the LORD, who spoke to him and gave him a sign.

    Full study and all 35 verses →
  • רְשַׁם reshaminscribe, signtranslated this way 5 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H7560Verb  ·  Translated: signed 3, sign 2, wrote 1, written 1

    Daniel 6:8 Therefore, O king, establish the decree and sign the document so that it cannot be changed — in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.”

    Daniel 6:9 Therefore King Darius signed the written decree.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • אָת âthsigntranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H852Noun  ·  Translated: signs 3

    Daniel 4:2 I am pleased to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me.

    Daniel 4:3 How great are His signs, how mighty His wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; His dominion endures from generation to generation.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • כָּתַב kâthabwritetranslated this way 3 times of its 219 uses · Strong’s H3789Verb  ·  Translated: written 104, write 29, wrote 21, recorded 16

    Jeremiah 32:10 I signed and sealed the deed, called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales.

    Jeremiah 32:12 and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who were signing the purchase agreement and all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.

    Full study and all 210 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • σημεῖον sēmeîona sign, miracle, indicationtranslated this way 68 times of its 74 uses · Strong’s G4592Noun  ·  Translated: signs 37, sign 31, miracle 2

    Matthew 12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”

    Mark 8:11 Then the Pharisees came and began to argue with Jesus, testing Him by demanding from Him a sign from heaven.

    Full study and all 69 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.

What the Bible says about sign: passages by topic →

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.