Word study
Silver
3 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “silver”. 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 “silver” 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)
- כֶּסֶף kesephsilver, moneytranslated this way 305 times of its 386 uses · Strong’s H3701Noun · Translated: silver 293, money 58, price 8, like silver 4Full study and all 337 verses →
Genesis 13:2 And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.
Exodus 3:22 Every woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”
- כְּסַף kesaphsilvertranslated this way 12 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s H3702Noun · Translated: silver 12, money 1Full study and all 13 verses →
Ezra 5:14 He also removed from the temple of Babylon the gold and silver articles belonging to the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken and carried there from the temple in Jerusalem. King Cyrus gave these articles to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he appointed governor
Daniel 2:32 The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs were bronze,
- קְשִׂיטָה qesîṭâhingottranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H7192Noun · Translated: pieces of silver 2, piece of silver 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Genesis 33:19 And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.
Joshua 24:32 And the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up out of Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the plot of land that Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver. So it became an inheritance for Joseph’s descendants.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀργύριον argýrionsilver, a shekel, money in generaltranslated this way 10 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s G694Noun · Translated: money 8, silver 6, pieces of silver 4, sum of money 1Full study and all 20 verses →
Matthew 26:15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand Him over to you?” And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.
Acts 3:6 But Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”
- ἄργυρος árgyrossilver as a metaltranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G696Noun · Translated: silver 5Full study and all 5 verses →
Matthew 10:9 Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts.
Acts 17:29 Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination.
- ἀργύρεος argýreosmade of silvertranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G693Adjective · Translated: silver 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Acts 19:24 It began with a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines of Artemis, bringing much business to the craftsmen.
2 Timothy 2:20 A large house contains not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some indeed are for honorable use, but others are for common use.
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.
What the Bible says about silver: 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.