Word study
Top
8 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: top, tops. 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 “top” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רֹאשׁ rôshheadtranslated this way 37 times of its 570 uses · Strong’s H7218Noun · Translated: head 200, heads 113, chief 31, top 29Full study and all 530 verses →
Genesis 8:5 And the waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
Exodus 17:10 Joshua did as Moses had instructed him and fought against the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
- עַל alheighttranslated this way 5 times of its 4,859 uses · Strong’s H5921Preposition · Translated: on 777, over 297, in 218, against 216Full study and all 3,996 verses →
Genesis 28:13 And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie.
- צַמֶּרֶת tsammerethtoptranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6788Noun · Translated: top 4, tops 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Ezekiel 17:3 and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, full of feathers of many colors, came to Lebanon and took away the top of the cedar.
Ezekiel 17:22 This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take a shoot from the lofty top of the cedar, and I will set it out. I will pluck a tender sprig from its topmost shoots, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
- מַשְׁקוֹף mashqôphlinteltranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4947Noun · Translated: top 2, tops of the doorframes 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Exodus 12:7 They are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.
Exodus 12:22 Take a cluster of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin, and brush the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe. None of you shall go out the door of his house until morning.
- מַעַל maalhigher parttranslated this way 2 times of its 112 uses · Strong’s H4605Adverb · Translated: older 30, above 21, more 8, upward 6Full study and all 109 verses →
Genesis 6:16 You are to make a roof for the ark, finish its walls a cubit from the top, place a door in the side of the ark, and build lower, middle, and upper decks.
1 Kings 7:31 The opening to each stand inside the crown at the top was one cubit deep, with a round opening like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half wide. And around its opening were engravings, but the panels of the stands were square, not round.
- גָּג gâgroof, toptranslated this way 2 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s H1406Noun · Translated: roof 14, rooftops 10, top 2, around your roof 1Full study and all 27 verses →
Exodus 30:3 Overlay with pure gold the top and all the sides and horns, and make a molding of gold around it.
Exodus 37:26 And he overlaid with pure gold the top and all the sides and horns. Then he made a molding of gold around it.
- קׇדְקֹד qodqôdhead, crown of headtranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H6936Noun · Translated: head 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Deuteronomy 28:35 The LORD will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.
2 Samuel 14:25 Now there was not a man in all Israel as handsome and highly praised as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head, he did not have a single flaw.
- רוּם rûmheighttranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7314Noun · Translated: high 2, top 2, height 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Daniel 4:11 The tree grew large and strong; its top reached the sky, and it was visible to the ends of the earth.
Daniel 4:20 The tree you saw that grew large and strong, whose top reached the sky and was visible to all the earth,
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἄνωθεν ánōthenfrom above, from the beginning, againtranslated this way 3 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s G509Adverb · Translated: from above 5, top 2, again 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Matthew 27:51 At that moment the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, and the rocks were split.
Mark 15:38 And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.
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.