Word study

Sunrise

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “sunrise”. 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 “sunrise” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מִזְרָח mizrâchplace of sunrise, easttranslated this way 5 times of its 70 uses · Strong’s H4217Noun  ·  Translated: east 46, eastward 6, toward the sunrise 5, east side 4

    Exodus 27:13 The east side of the courtyard, toward the sunrise, is to be fifty cubits wide.

    Numbers 2:3 On the east side, toward the sunrise, the divisions of Judah are to camp under their standard: The leader of the Judahites is Nahshon son of Amminadab,

    Full study and all 67 verses →
  • זָרַח zârachrise, come forthtranslated this way 2 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H2224Verb  ·  Translated: rises 5, rise 2

    Exodus 22:3 But if it happens after sunrise, there is guilt for his bloodshed. A thief must make full restitution; if he has nothing, he himself shall be sold for his theft.

    Judges 9:33 And in the morning at sunrise, get up and advance against the city. When Gaal and his men come out against you, do to them whatever you are able.”

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • שֶׁמֶשׁ shemeshsuntranslated this way 1 time of its 108 uses · Strong’s H8121Noun  ·  Translated: sun 88, time the sun 3, sunset 3, broad daylight 2

    2 Samuel 23:4 is like the light of the morning at sunrise of a cloudless dawn, the glistening after the rain on the sprouting grass of the earth.’

    Full study and all 101 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

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.