Word study
West
7 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “west”. 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 “west” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- יָם yâmseatranslated this way 59 times of its 378 uses · Strong’s H3220Noun · Translated: sea 254, west 51, seas 20, west side 7Full study and all 327 verses →
Genesis 12:8 From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD.
Exodus 10:19 And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them into the Red Sea. Not a single locust remained anywhere in Egypt.
- מַעֲרָב maărâbwesttranslated this way 12 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H4628Noun · Translated: west 10, West Gate 1, west side 1, sets 1Full study and all 14 verses →
1 Chronicles 7:28 Their holdings and settlements included Bethel and its villages, Naaran to the east, Gezer and its villages to the west, and Shechem and its villages as far as Ayyah and its villages.
2 Chronicles 32:30 It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Spring of Gihon and channeled it down to the west side of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all that he did.
- עֲבַר ăbarregion across, beyondtranslated this way 11 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H5675Noun · Translated: west 6, region west 5, region 2, of 1Full study and all 12 verses →
Ezra 4:10 and the rest of the peoples whom the great and honorable Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and elsewhere west of the Euphrates.
Ezra 4:11 (This is the text of the letter they sent to him.) To King Artaxerxes, From your servants, the men west of the Euphrates:
- עֵבֶר êberregion across or beyond, sidetranslated this way 6 times of its 80 uses · Strong’s H5676Noun · Translated: beyond 23, across 15, side 11, other side 8Full study and all 76 verses →
Joshua 9:1 Now when news of this reached all the kings west of the Jordan — those in the hill country, the foothills, and all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon (the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites)—
1 Kings 4:24 For Solomon had dominion over everything west of the Euphrates — over all the kingdoms from Tiphsah to Gaza — and he had peace on all sides.
- מָבוֹא mâbôentrance, a coming in, enteringtranslated this way 2 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H3996Noun · Translated: entrance 10, sets 3, west 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Deuteronomy 11:30 Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh?
Joshua 1:4 Your territory shall extend from the wilderness and Lebanon to the great River Euphrates— all the land of the Hittites— and west as far as the Great Sea.
- אַחַר acharbehindtranslated this way 2 times of its 556 uses · Strong’s H310Preposition · Translated: after 123, behind 56, and after 22, after that 19Full study and all 533 verses →
Judges 18:12 They went up and camped at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. That is why the place west of Kiriath-jearim is called Mahaneh-dan to this day.
2 Samuel 13:34 Meanwhile, Absalom had fled. When the young man standing watch looked up, he saw many people coming down the road west of him, along the side of the hill. And the watchman went and reported to the king, “I see men coming from the direction of Horonaim, along the side of the hill.”
- אָחוֹר âchôrthe hinder side, back parttranslated this way 2 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s H268Noun · Translated: back 11, behind 4, backward 3, hindquarters 2Full study and all 29 verses →
Job 23:8 If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot find Him.
Isaiah 9:12 Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have devoured Israel with open mouths. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.
Greek words (New Testament)
- δυσμή dysmḗa setting of the sun, the Westtranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G1424Noun · Translated: west 5Full study and all 5 verses →
Matthew 8:11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west to share the banquet with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
Luke 12:54 Then Jesus said to the crowds, “As soon as you see a cloud rising in the west, you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and that is what happens.
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.