Word study
Vast
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “vast”. 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 “vast” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רַב rabmuch, many, greattranslated this way 7 times of its 445 uses · Strong’s H7227Adjective · Translated: many 171, great 65, captain 24, long 14Full study and all 426 verses →
2 Chronicles 13:8 And now you think you can resist the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the hands of David’s descendants. You are indeed a vast army, and you have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods.
Esther 1:20 The edict the king issues will be heard throughout his vast kingdom — and so all women, from the least to the greatest, will honor their husbands.”
- גָּדוֹל gâdôlgreattranslated this way 5 times of its 501 uses · Strong’s H1419Adjective · Translated: great 262, large 33, high 20, loud 14Full study and all 477 verses →
Deuteronomy 1:19 And just as the LORD our God had commanded us, we set out from Horeb and went toward the hill country of the Amorites, through all the vast and terrifying wilderness you have seen. When we reached Kadesh-barnea,
Psalm 104:25 Here is the sea, vast and wide, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both great and small.
- רֹב rôbmultitude, abundance, greatnesstranslated this way 2 times of its 142 uses · Strong’s H7230Noun · Translated: many 28, abundance 22, great 18, abundant 10Full study and all 138 verses →
2 Chronicles 16:8 Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand.
Psalm 33:16 No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength.
- הָמוֹן hâmônsound, murmur, roar, crowd, abundancetranslated this way 2 times of its 81 uses · Strong’s H1995Noun · Translated: multitude 12, army 10, multitudes 8, many 6Full study and all 77 verses →
2 Chronicles 20:24 When the men of Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked for the vast army, but there were only corpses lying on the ground; no one had escaped.
2 Chronicles 32:7 “Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater One with us than with him.
- צָבָא tsâbâarmy, war, warfaretranslated this way 1 time of its 468 uses · Strong’s H6635Noun · Translated: Hosts 286, army 66, host 23, divisions 21Full study and all 448 verses →
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
- עָצַם âtsambe vast, mighty, numeroustranslated this way 1 time of its 18 uses · Strong’s H6105Verb · Translated: numerous 5, more 2, more numerous 2Full study and all 18 verses →
Psalm 139:17 How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum!
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.