Word study

Weapon

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: weapons, weapon. 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 “weapon” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • כְּלִי kelîarticle, utensil, vesseltranslated this way 27 times of its 282 uses · Strong’s H3627Noun  ·  Translated: articles 59, utensils 32, weapons 20, furnishings 15

    Genesis 27:3 Take your weapons — your quiver and bow — and go out into the field to hunt some game for me.

    Deuteronomy 1:41 “We have sinned against the LORD,” you replied. “We will go up and fight, as the LORD our God has commanded us.” Then each of you put on his weapons of war, thinking it easy to go up into the hill country.

    Full study and all 255 verses →
  • נֶשֶׁק nesheqequipment, weaponstranslated this way 6 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H5402Noun  ·  Translated: weapons 4, battle 2, weaponry 1, armory 1

    1 Kings 10:25 Year after year, each visitor would bring his tribute: articles of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

    2 Chronicles 9:24 Year after year, each visitor would bring his tribute: articles of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • שֶׁלַח shelachmissile, weapon, sprouttranslated this way 4 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H7973Noun  ·  Translated: weapons 2, sword 2, weapon 1, carried his weapon 1

    2 Chronicles 23:10 He stationed all the troops, with their weapons in hand, surrounding the king by the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple.

    Nehemiah 4:17 who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried materials worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other.

    Full study and all 8 verses →
  • מִלְחָמָה milchâmâhbattle, wartranslated this way 2 times of its 298 uses · Strong’s H4421Noun  ·  Translated: battle 135, war 96, fight 11, army 5

    Psalm 76:3 There He shattered the flaming arrows, the shield and sword and weapons of war. Selah

    Isaiah 30:32 And with every stroke of the rod of punishment that the LORD brings down on them, the tambourines and lyres will sound as He battles with weapons brandished.

    Full study and all 289 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ὅπλον hóplonan instrument, arms, weaponstranslated this way 3 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G3696Noun  ·  Translated: weapons 3, instruments 2, armor 1

    John 18:3 So Judas brought a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees. They arrived at the garden carrying lanterns, torches, and weapons.

    2 Corinthians 6:7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;

    Full study and all 5 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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.