Word study

White

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “white”. 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 “white” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • לָבָן lâbânwhitetranslated this way 23 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s H3836Adjective  ·  Translated: white 23, reddish-white 4, whiter 1

    Genesis 30:35 That very day Laban removed all the streaked or spotted male goats and every speckled or spotted female goat— every one that had any white on it— and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them under the care of his sons.

    Exodus 16:31 Now the house of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

    Full study and all 24 verses →
  • תַּנְשֶׁמֶת tanshemethhard breather, lizard, birdtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H8580Noun  ·  Translated: white owl 2, chameleon 1

    Leviticus 11:18 the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey,

    Deuteronomy 14:16 the little owl, the great owl, the white owl,

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • חוּר chûrwhite stufftranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H2353Noun  ·  Translated: white 2

    Esther 1:6 Hangings of white and blue linen were fastened with cords of fine white and purple material to silver rings on the marble pillars. Gold and silver couches were arranged on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and other costly stones.

    Esther 8:15 Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal garments of blue and white, with a large gold crown and a purple robe of fine linen. And the city of Susa shouted and rejoiced.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • לָבַן lâbanbe whitetranslated this way 2 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H3835Verb  ·  Translated: made spotless 2

    Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.

    Joel 1:7 It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.

    Full study and all 8 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • λευκός leukóswhite, brighttranslated this way 24 times of its 25 uses · Strong’s G3022Adjective  ·  Translated: white 24, ripe 1

    Matthew 5:36 Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.

    Mark 9:3 His clothes became radiantly white, brighter than any launderer on earth could bleach them.

    Full study and all 23 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.

What the Bible says about white: 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.