Word study
Three
5 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “three”. 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 “three” 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)
- שָׁלוֹשׁ shâlôsha three, triadtranslated this way 270 times of its 383 uses · Strong’s H7969Number · Translated: three 254, third 11, thirteenth 10, thirteen 10Full study and all 342 verses →
Genesis 6:10 And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Exodus 2:2 and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.
- תְּלָת telâththreetranslated this way 10 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H8532Number · Translated: three 10, third 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Ezra 6:4 with three layers of cut stones and one of timbers. The costs are to be paid from the royal treasury.
Daniel 3:23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, firmly bound, fell into the blazing fiery furnace.
- שְׁלִישִׁי shelîshîthirdtranslated this way 6 times of its 106 uses · Strong’s H7992Number · Translated: third 94, Three 4Full study and all 92 verses →
Genesis 34:25 Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male.
2 Samuel 23:18 Now Abishai, the brother of Joab and son of Zeruiah, was chief of the Three, and he wielded his spear against three hundred men, killed them, and won a name along with the Three.
- שָׁלַשׁ shâlashdo a third time, devide into three partstranslated this way 5 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H8027Verb · Translated: three years old 1, divide into three regions 1, stayed three days 1, do 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Genesis 15:9 And the LORD said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.”
Deuteronomy 19:3 You are to build roads for yourselves and divide into three regions the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that any manslayer can flee to these cities.
- שְׁלוֹשִׁים shelôshîmthirtytranslated this way 2 times of its 134 uses · Strong’s H7970Number · Translated: thirty 56, hundred and thirty 12, 30 7, thirty-three 5Full study and all 122 verses →
Genesis 46:15 These are the sons of Leah born to Jacob in Paddan-aram, in addition to his daughter Dinah. The total number of sons and daughters was thirty-three.
Leviticus 12:4 The woman shall continue in purification from her bleeding for thirty-three days. She must not touch anything sacred or go into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are complete.
Greek words (New Testament)
- τρεῖς treîsthreetranslated this way 66 times of its 66 uses · Strong’s G5140Adjective · Translated: three 66Full study and all 59 verses →
Matthew 12:40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Mark 8:2 “I have compassion for this crowd, because they have already been with Me three days and have nothing to eat.
- τρίς trísthree timestranslated this way 12 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s G5151Adverb · Translated: three times 12Full study and all 11 verses →
Matthew 26:34 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus declared, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”
Mark 14:30 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.”
- τριακόσιοι triakósioithree hundredtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G5145Adjective · Translated: three hundred 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Mark 14:5 It could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her.
John 12:5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”
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.