Word study

String

7 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נְגִינָה negînâhmusictranslated this way 9 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H5058Noun  ·  Translated: stringed instruments 9, mock me in song 2, song 2, music 1

    Psalm 4:1 For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer.

    Isaiah 38:20 The LORD will save me; we will play songs on stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the house of the LORD.

    Full study and all 14 verses →
  • עָשׂוֹר âsôra ten, decadetranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H6218Noun  ·  Translated: tenth 11, ten strings 2, ten 1, tenth day 1

    Psalm 33:2 Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to Him with ten strings.

    Psalm 92:3 with the ten-stringed harp and the melody of the lyre.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • נֶבֶל nebelskin-bottle, skintranslated this way 1 time of its 36 uses · Strong’s H5035Noun  ·  Translated: harps 13, harp 8, skin 3, play the harps 2

    2 Samuel 6:5 David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD with all kinds of wood instruments, harps, stringed instruments, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.

    Full study and all 35 verses →
  • יֶתֶר yetherremainder, excellence, excesstranslated this way 1 time of its 97 uses · Strong’s H3499Noun  ·  Translated: rest 64, remnant 6, bowstrings 3, left 3

    Psalm 11:2 For behold, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrow on the string to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.

    Full study and all 93 verses →
  • דָּרַךְ dâraktread, marchtranslated this way 1 time of its 61 uses · Strong’s H1869Verb  ·  Translated: bent 5, treads 4, tread 4, bend 4

    Jeremiah 50:29 Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.

    Full study and all 59 verses →
  • מֵן mênstringtranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4482Noun  ·  Translated: harps 1, strings 1

    Psalm 150:4 Praise Him with tambourine and dancing; praise Him with strings and flute.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • חָרוּז chârûzstring of beadstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H2737Noun  ·  Translated: strings of jewels 1

    Song of Solomon 1:10 Your cheeks are beautiful with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
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.