Word study
Thorn
6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: thorns, thorn. 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 “thorn” 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)
- קוֹץ qôtsthornbush, thorntranslated this way 11 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H6975Noun · Translated: thorns 8, like thorns 2, thornbushes 1, thorn 1Full study and all 12 verses →
Genesis 3:18 Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Judges 8:7 “Very well,” Gideon replied, “when the LORD has delivered Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns and briers of the wilderness!”
- שַׁיִת shayiththorn-bushestranslated this way 7 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H7898Noun · Translated: thorns 6, Assyria's thorns 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Isaiah 5:6 I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and thorns and briers will grow up. I will command the clouds that rain shall not fall on it.”
Isaiah 7:23 And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found.
- סִיר sîrpottranslated this way 4 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s H5518Noun · Translated: pots 11, pot 11, thorns 4, washbasin 2Full study and all 32 verses →
Ecclesiastes 7:6 For like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.
Isaiah 34:13 Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches.
- חוֹחַ chôachbrier, brambletranslated this way 3 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H2336Noun · Translated: thistle 4, briers 2, thorns 2Full study and all 10 verses →
Proverbs 26:9 Like a thorn that goes into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.
Song of Solomon 2:2 Like a lily among the thorns is my darling among the maidens.
- צָנִין tsânînthorn, pricktranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H6796Noun · Translated: thorns 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Numbers 33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you settle.
Joshua 23:13 know for sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you.
- צֵן tsênthorn? barb?translated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H6791Noun · Translated: thorns 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Job 5:5 The hungry consume his harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and the thirsty pant after his wealth.
Proverbs 22:5 Thorns and snares lie on the path of the perverse; he who guards his soul stays far from them.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἄκανθα ákanthaa thorn-bushtranslated this way 9 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G173Noun · Translated: thorns 9, thornbushes 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Matthew 13:7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings.
Mark 4:7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings, and they yielded no crop.
- ἀκάνθινος akánthinosmade of thornstranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G174Adjective · Translated: thorns 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Mark 15:17 They dressed Him in a purple robe, twisted together a crown of thorns, and set it on His head.
John 19:5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”
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 thorn: 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.