Word study
Torrent
4 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: torrents, torrent. 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 “torrent” 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)
- נַחַל nachaltorrent, torrent-valley, wadytranslated this way 7 times of its 138 uses · Strong’s H5158Noun · Translated: Valley 49, Brook 26, river 17, streams 8Full study and all 123 verses →
2 Samuel 22:5 For the waves of death engulfed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
Psalm 18:4 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
- שָׁטַף shâṭaphoverflow, rinse or wash offtranslated this way 3 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H7857Verb · Translated: rinsed 3, torrents 3, overflowing 2, like a flood 2Full study and all 29 verses →
Ezekiel 13:11 tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth.
Ezekiel 13:13 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: In My wrath I will release a windstorm, and in My anger torrents of rain and hail will fall with destructive fury.
- סָפִיחַ sâphîachoutpouring ?translated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s H5599Noun · Translated: aftergrowth 2, grows 2, torrents 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Job 14:19 as water wears away the stones and torrents wash away the soil, so You destroy a man’s hope.
- זֶרֶם zeremflood of rain, rain-storm, downpourtranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H2230Noun · Translated: storm 4, rains 1, like rain 1, like a driving rain 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Habakkuk 3:10 The mountains saw You and quaked; torrents of water swept by. The deep roared with its voice and lifted its hands on high.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ποταμός potamósa river, torrenttranslated this way 4 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s G4215Noun · Translated: river 9, rivers 3, torrents 2, torrent 2Full study and all 17 verses →
Matthew 7:25 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
Luke 6:48 He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid his foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the torrent crashed against that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.
- ποταμοφόρητος potamophórētoscarried away by a streamtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4216Adjective · Translated: away in the torrent 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Revelation 12:15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away in the torrent.
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.