Word study
Wave
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: wave, waves, waved, waving. 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 “wave” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- תְּנוּפָה tenûphâha swinging, waving, wave-offering, offeringtranslated this way 28 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H8573Noun · Translated: wave offering 26, waved 1, wave offerings 1, uplifted 1Full study and all 28 verses →
Exodus 29:24 Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.
Leviticus 7:30 With his own hands he is to bring the food offerings to the LORD; he shall bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast as a wave offering before the LORD.
- נוּף nûphmove to and fro, wave, besprinkletranslated this way 20 times of its 37 uses · Strong’s H5130Verb · Translated: wave 15, waved 4, presented 3, use 2Full study and all 35 verses →
Exodus 29:24 Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering.
Leviticus 7:30 With his own hands he is to bring the food offerings to the LORD; he shall bring the fat, together with the breast, and wave the breast as a wave offering before the LORD.
- גַּל galheap, wave, billowtranslated this way 15 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s H1530Noun · Translated: waves 13, mound 8, heap of rubble 3, pile 2Full study and all 31 verses →
Job 38:11 and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?
Psalm 42:7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.
- חֲלִיפָה chălîphâha changetranslated this way 2 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H2487Noun · Translated: sets 6Full study and all 11 verses →
Job 10:17 You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.
- מִשְׁבָּר mishbârbreakertranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H4867Noun · Translated: breakers 3, waves 2Full study and all 5 verses →
2 Samuel 22:5 For the waves of death engulfed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
Psalm 88:7 Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah
Greek words (New Testament)
- κῦμα kŷmaa wavetranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G2949Noun · Translated: waves 5Full study and all 5 verses →
Matthew 8:24 Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves. But Jesus was sleeping.
Mark 4:37 Soon a violent windstorm came up, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was being swamped.
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.