Word study

Skill

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • חָכָם châkâmwisetranslated this way 12 times of its 136 uses · Strong’s H2450Adjective  ·  Translated: wise 86, wise men 8, wise man 6, skilled 5

    Exodus 28:3 You are to instruct all the skilled craftsmen, whom I have filled with a spirit of wisdom, to make garments for Aaron’s consecration, so that he may serve Me as priest.

    1 Chronicles 22:15 You also have many workers: stonecutters, masons, carpenters, and men skilled in every kind of work —

    Full study and all 133 verses →
  • חׇכְמָה chokmâhwisdomtranslated this way 10 times of its 150 uses · Strong’s H2451Noun  ·  Translated: wisdom 130, skill 10

    Exodus 31:3 And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of craftsmanship,

    1 Kings 7:14 He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a craftsman in bronze. Huram had great skill, understanding, and knowledge for every kind of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and carried out all his work.

    Full study and all 142 verses →
  • יָדַע yâdaknowtranslated this way 4 times of its 914 uses · Strong’s H3045Verb  ·  Translated: know 453, known 53, knows 48, knew 38Full study and all 863 verses →
  • בִּין bîndiscerntranslated this way 3 times of its 166 uses · Strong’s H995Verb  ·  Translated: understand 27, discerning 16, understanding 12, consider 10

    1 Chronicles 15:22 Chenaniah the head Levite was the director of the music because he was highly skilled.

    2 Chronicles 34:12 And the men did the work faithfully. The Levites overseeing them were Jahath and Obadiah, descendants of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, descendants of Kohath. Other Levites, all skilled with musical instruments,

    Full study and all 160 verses →
  • מָהִיר mâhîrquick, prompt, ready, skilledtranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H4106Adjective  ·  Translated: skilled 2, skillful 1, hastening 1

    Ezra 7:6 this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted Ezra all his requests, for the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.

    Proverbs 22:29 Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will be stationed in the presence of kings; he will not stand before obscure men.

    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.