Word study
Water
7 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: water, waters, watered, watering. 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 “water” 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)
- מַיִם mayimwater, juice, urinetranslated this way 504 times of its 533 uses · Strong’s H4325Noun · Translated: water 298, waters 176, like water 15, flood 3Full study and all 497 verses →
Genesis 1:2 Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Exodus 2:10 When the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses and explained, “I drew him out of the water.”
- שָׁקָה shâqâhquaff, irrigate, furnish a potion totranslated this way 18 times of its 62 uses · Strong’s H8248Verb · Translated: drink 16, water 10, watered 6, drunk 3Full study and all 60 verses →
Genesis 2:6 But springs welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.
Exodus 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.
- שָׁאַב shâabdrawtranslated this way 7 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7579Verb · Translated: draw water 5, draw 5, carriers 3, drew 3Full study and all 18 verses →
Genesis 24:11 As evening approached, he made the camels kneel down near the well outside the town at the time when the women went out to draw water.
Genesis 24:19 After she had given him a drink, she said, “I will also draw water for your camels, until they have had enough to drink.”
- נָהָר nâhârstream, rivertranslated this way 2 times of its 114 uses · Strong’s H5104Noun · Translated: River 34, Euphrates 24, rivers 24, streams 6Full study and all 108 verses →
Psalm 24:2 For He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
Psalm 66:6 He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the waters on foot; there we rejoiced in Him.
- נָוֶה nâvehabode of shepherd, or flockstranslated this way 2 times of its 37 uses · Strong’s H5116Noun · Translated: pasture 11, dwelling 3, dwelling place 2, home 2Full study and all 36 verses →
Jeremiah 49:19 Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Edom from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
Jeremiah 50:44 Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
- חֵמֶת chêmethwaterskintranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H2573Noun · Translated: skin of water 1, skin 1, skin with water 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Genesis 21:14 Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
Genesis 21:19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
- דָּלָה dâlâhdrawtranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H1802Verb · Translated: draw water 1, drew water 1, lifted 1, draws 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Exodus 2:16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.
Exodus 2:19 “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they replied. “He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὕδωρ hýdōrwatertranslated this way 75 times of its 75 uses · Strong’s G5204Noun · Translated: water 63, waters 12Full study and all 67 verses →
Matthew 3:11 I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come One more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Mark 1:8 I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
- ποτίζω potízōI cause to drink, give to drinktranslated this way 4 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s G4222Verb · Translated: gives 2, gave 2, held 2, waters 2Full study and all 15 verses →
Luke 13:15 “You hypocrites!” the Lord replied. “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water?
1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
- ὑδρία hydríaa water pottranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G5201Noun · Translated: water jars 1, jars 1, water jar 1Full study and all 3 verses →
John 2:6 Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons.
John 4:28 Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people,
- ἄνυδρος ánydroswithout water, drytranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G504Adjective · Translated: arid 2, without water 2Full study and all 4 verses →
2 Peter 2:17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
Jude 1:12 These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
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.
What the Bible says about water: passages by topic →
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.