Word study
Song
8 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: song, songs. 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 “song” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שִׁיר shîrsongtranslated this way 74 times of its 89 uses · Strong’s H7892Noun · Translated: song 62, songs 12, musical 6, singing 2Full study and all 87 verses →
Exodus 15:1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted. The horse and rider He has thrown into the sea.
Numbers 21:17 Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well, all of you sing to it!
- רִנָּה rinnâhringing crytranslated this way 5 times of its 33 uses · Strong’s H7440Noun · Translated: cry 11, shouts of joy 5, song 5, joy 4Full study and all 33 verses →
Isaiah 14:7 All the earth is at peace and at rest; they break out in song.
Isaiah 44:23 Sing for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has done this; shout aloud, O depths of the earth. Break forth in song, O mountains, you forests and all your trees. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and revealed His glory in Israel.
- נְגִינָה negînâhmusictranslated this way 4 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H5058Noun · Translated: stringed instruments 9, mock me in song 2, song 2, music 1Full study and all 14 verses →
Job 30:9 And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them.
Psalm 69:12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of drunkards.
- זָמִיר zâmîrsongtranslated this way 4 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H2158Noun · Translated: songs 2, song 2, psalmist 1, singing 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Job 35:10 But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,
Psalm 95:2 Let us enter His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him in song.
- זִמְרָת zimrâthmusic, praisetranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H2176Noun · Translated: song 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Exodus 15:2 The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
Psalm 118:14 The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.
- שִׁיר shîrsingtranslated this way 3 times of its 83 uses · Strong’s H7891Verb · Translated: sing 31, singers 25, sang 4, male 3Full study and all 76 verses →
Judges 5:1 On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:
Job 36:24 Remember to magnify His work, which men have praised in song.
- קוֹל qôlsound, voicetranslated this way 2 times of its 425 uses · Strong’s H6963Noun · Translated: voice 197, sound 63, voices 22, thunder 11Full study and all 378 verses →
Psalm 98:5 Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, in melodious song with the harp.
Isaiah 51:3 For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.
- שִׂמְחָה simchâhjoy, gladness, mirthtranslated this way 2 times of its 91 uses · Strong’s H8057Noun · Translated: joy 48, gladness 14, rejoicing 6, pleasure 5Full study and all 87 verses →
1 Samuel 18:6 As the troops were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs, and with tambourines and other instruments.
Psalm 137:3 for there our captors requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- ᾠδή ōidḗan ode, songtranslated this way 6 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G5603Noun · Translated: song 4, songs 2Full study and all 5 verses →
Ephesians 5:19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord,
Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
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 song: 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.