Word study
Sore
5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sores, sore. 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 “sore” 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)
- נֶגַע negastroke, plague, mark, plague-spottranslated this way 3 times of its 64 uses · Strong’s H5061Noun · Translated: infection 12, mildew 12, contaminated 6, plague 4Full study and all 56 verses →
Leviticus 13:3 The priest is to examine the infection on his skin, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.
Leviticus 13:6 The priest will examine him again on the seventh day, and if the sore has faded and has not spread on the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is a rash. The person must wash his clothes and be clean.
- יַבֵּל yabbêlrunning, suppuratingtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H2990Noun · Translated: anything with a running sore 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Leviticus 22:22 You are not to present to the LORD any animal that is blind, injured, or maimed, or anything with a running sore, a festering rash, or a scab; you must not put any of these on the altar as a food offering to the LORD.
- מַכָּה makkâhblow, wound, slaughtertranslated this way 1 time of its 44 uses · Strong’s H4347Noun · Translated: wounds 9, slaughter 7, wound 7, plagues 4Full study and all 43 verses →
Isaiah 1:6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.
- סָפַח sâphachjoin, attach totranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s H5596Verb · Translated: appoint 1, sharing 1, huddled 1, bring sores 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Isaiah 3:17 the Lord will bring sores on the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will make their foreheads bare.”
- מָזוֹר mâzôrwoundtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4205Noun · Translated: wound 2, sores 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Jeremiah 30:13 There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sores, no recovery for you.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἕλκος hélkosa festering soretranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G1668Noun · Translated: sores 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Luke 16:21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
Revelation 16:2 So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and loathsome, malignant sores broke out on those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
- ἑλκόω helkóōI afflict with sorestranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G1669Verb · Translated: covered with sores 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Luke 16:20 And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate, covered with sores
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.