Word study
Thread
4 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: thread, threads. 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 “thread” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׁנִי shânîscarlettranslated this way 2 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H8144Noun · Translated: scarlet yarn 5, scarlet 5, scarlet thread 2, scarlet wool 1Full study and all 15 verses →
Genesis 38:28 And as she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it around his wrist. “This one came out first,” she announced.
Genesis 38:30 Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.
- חוּט chûṭthread, cord, linetranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s H2339Noun · Translated: thread 1, like 1, circumference 1, Moreover 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Genesis 14:23 that I will not accept even a thread, or a strap of a sandal, or anything that belongs to you, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’
- אַמָּה ammâhell, cubittranslated this way 1 time of its 230 uses · Strong’s H520Noun · Translated: cubits 174, cubit 32, two cubits 5, cubits long 5Full study and all 132 verses →
Jeremiah 51:13 You who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come; the thread of your life is cut.
- פָּתִיל pâthîlcord, threadtranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s H6616Noun · Translated: cord 8, threads 1, fastened 1, strand 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Exodus 39:3 They hammered out thin sheets of gold and cut threads from them to interweave with the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen — the work of a skilled craftsman.
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.