Word study
Total
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: total, totaled. 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 “total” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- כֹּל kôlthe whole, alltranslated this way 28 times of its 5,107 uses · Strong’s H3605Noun · Translated: all 1,589, and all 471, whole 223, every 196Full study and all 4,112 verses →
Genesis 5:5 So Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.
Genesis 5:8 So Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died.
- הָיָה hâyâhfall out, come to pass, become, betranslated this way 3 times of its 2,848 uses · Strong’s H1961Verb · Translated: will be 206, become 178, came 169, was 151Full study and all 2,573 verses →
Genesis 9:29 So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
- מִסְפָּר mispârnumber, taletranslated this way 3 times of its 113 uses · Strong’s H4557Noun · Translated: number 35, according to the number 13, counting 13, few 9Full study and all 111 verses →
2 Samuel 24:9 And Joab reported to the king the total number of the troops. In Israel there were 800,000 men of valor who drew the sword, and in Judah there were 500,000.
1 Chronicles 21:5 And Joab reported to David the total number of the troops. In all Israel there were 1,100,000 men who drew the sword, including 470,000 in Judah.
- אֵלֶּה êl-lehthesetranslated this way 2 times of its 693 uses · Strong’s H428Pronoun · Translated: these 377, things 36, of these 28, this 25Full study and all 655 verses →
Genesis 25:7 Abraham lived a total of 175 years.
Genesis 25:17 Ishmael lived a total of 137 years. Then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.
- שֵׁשׁ shêshsixtranslated this way 2 times of its 171 uses · Strong’s H8337Number · Translated: six 103, sixteen 18, 600 3, 666 3Full study and all 165 verses →
Exodus 38:26 a beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone twenty years of age or older who had crossed over to be numbered, a total of 603,550 men.
Numbers 1:46 And all those counted totaled 603,550.
- אֶלֶף elephthousandtranslated this way 2 times of its 233 uses · Strong’s H505Number · Translated: thousand 116, thousands 33, two thousand 10, clans 8Full study and all 201 verses →
Numbers 4:36 And those numbered by their clans totaled 2,750.
Numbers 4:40 And those numbered by their clans and families totaled 2,630.
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.