Word study
Speech
7 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: speech, speeches. 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 “speech” 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)
- שָׂפָה sâphâhlip, speech, edgetranslated this way 12 times of its 167 uses · Strong’s H8193Noun · Translated: lips 98, speech 12, rim 10, edge 9Full study and all 159 verses →
Genesis 11:7 Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Exodus 6:12 But in the LORD’s presence Moses replied, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, then why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I am unskilled in speech?”
- פֶּה pehmouthtranslated this way 7 times of its 423 uses · Strong’s H6310Noun · Translated: mouth 207, mouths 43, command 38, lips 10Full study and all 396 verses →
Exodus 4:10 “Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”
Psalm 55:21 His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.
- מִלָּה millâhword, speech, utterancetranslated this way 4 times of its 37 uses · Strong’s H4405Noun · Translated: words 22, word 2, speaking 2, speeches 2Full study and all 37 verses →
Job 15:3 Should he argue with useless words or speeches that serve no purpose?
Job 18:2 “How long until you end these speeches? Show some sense, and then we can talk.
- אִמְרָה imrâhutterance, speech, wordtranslated this way 3 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H565Noun · Translated: word 15, words 4, according to your promise 4, promise 4Full study and all 35 verses →
Genesis 4:23 Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my speech. For I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.
Deuteronomy 32:2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
- דָּבָר dâbârspeech, wordtranslated this way 3 times of its 1,244 uses · Strong’s H1697Noun · Translated: word 342, words 299, acts 51, Chronicles 42Full study and all 1,120 verses →
Genesis 11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech.
- אֹמֶר ômerutterance, speech, wordtranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H562Noun · Translated: speech 2, command 1, promise 1, called 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Psalm 19:2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
Psalm 19:3 Without speech or language, without a sound to be heard,
- מְבוּסָה mebûsâhdown-treading, subjugationtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4001Noun · Translated: strange speech 2, trampling 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Isaiah 18:2 which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.
Isaiah 18:7 At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts— from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers— to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.
Greek words (New Testament)
- λόγος lógosa word, speech, divine utterance, analogytranslated this way 9 times of its 311 uses · Strong’s G3056Noun · Translated: word 142, words 52, message 32, account 10Full study and all 298 verses →
Luke 24:19 “What things?” He asked. “The events involving Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “This man was a prophet, powerful in speech and action before God and all the people.
Acts 7:22 So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
- παροιμία paroimíaan allegory, proverbtranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G3942Noun · Translated: figures of speech 2, illustration 1, proverbs 1Full study and all 4 verses →
John 16:25 I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you this way, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
John 16:29 His disciples said, “See, now You are speaking plainly and without figures of speech.
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.