Word study
Thousand
4 Hebrew and 6 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: thousand, thousands. 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 “thousand” 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)
- אֶלֶף elephthousandtranslated this way 166 times of its 233 uses · Strong’s H505Number · Translated: thousand 116, thousands 33, two thousand 10, clans 8Full study and all 201 verses →
Genesis 20:16 And he said to Sarah, “See, I am giving your brother a thousand pieces of silver. It is your vindication before all who are with you; you are completely cleared.”
Exodus 18:21 Furthermore, select capable men from among the people — God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
- רְבָבָה rebâbâhmultitude, myriad, ten thousandtranslated this way 10 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H7233Number · Translated: ten thousand 4, tens of thousands 4, myriads 3Full study and all 16 verses →
Genesis 24:60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
Leviticus 26:8 Five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.
- אֲלַף ălaph1,000translated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H506Number · Translated: Thousands 2, thousand 1, them 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Daniel 5:1 Later, King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he drank wine with them.
Daniel 7:10 A river of fire was flowing, coming out from His presence. Thousands upon thousands attended Him, and myriads upon myriads stood before Him. The court was convened, and the books were opened.
- רִבּוֹ ribbôten thousand, myriadtranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7239Number · Translated: tens of thousands 2, 10 000 1, 18 000 1, great things 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Psalm 68:17 The chariots of God are tens of thousands — thousands of thousands are they; the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.
Daniel 11:12 When the army is carried off, the king of the South will be proud in heart and will cast down tens of thousands, but he will not triumph.
Greek words (New Testament)
- χίλιοι chílioia thousandtranslated this way 8 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G5507Adjective · Translated: thousand 8, 1 260 2, 1 600 1Full study and all 10 verses →
2 Peter 3:8 Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
Revelation 20:2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
- χιλιάς chiliása thousandtranslated this way 7 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G5505Noun · Translated: thousand 5, thousands 2Full study and all 5 verses →
Luke 14:31 Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
Acts 4:4 But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.
- πεντακισχίλιοι pentakischílioifive thousandtranslated this way 6 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G4000Adjective · Translated: five thousand 6Full study and all 6 verses →
Matthew 14:21 About five thousand men were fed, besides women and children.
Mark 6:44 And there were five thousand men who had eaten the loaves.
- τετρακισχίλιοι tetrakischílioifour thousandtranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G5070Adjective · Translated: four thousand 5Full study and all 5 verses →
Matthew 15:38 A total of four thousand men were fed, besides women and children.
Mark 8:9 And about four thousand men were present . And when Jesus had dismissed the crowd,
- μύριοι mýrioiten thousand, innumerabletranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G3463Adjective · Translated: ten thousand 2, owing ten thousand 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Matthew 18:24 As he began the settlements, a debtor owing ten thousand talents was brought to him.
1 Corinthians 4:15 Even if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
- μυριάς myriása myriad, ten thousandtranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G3461Noun · Translated: myriads 4, many thousands 1, thousands 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Luke 12:1 In the meantime, a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling one another. Jesus began to speak first to His disciples: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Acts 21:20 When they heard this, they glorified God. Then they said to Paul, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law.
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.