Word study
Wine
5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “wine”. 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 “wine” 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)
- יַיִן yayinwinetranslated this way 131 times of its 135 uses · Strong’s H3196Noun · Translated: wine 127Full study and all 129 verses →
Genesis 9:21 But when he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent.
Exodus 29:40 With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour, mixed with a quarter hin of oil from pressed olives, and a drink offering of a quarter hin of wine.
- תִּירוֹשׁ tîrôshmust, fresh or new winetranslated this way 37 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H8492Noun · Translated: new wine 36, wine 1, tread grapes 1Full study and all 38 verses →
Genesis 27:28 May God give to you the dew of heaven and the richness of the earth — an abundance of grain and new wine.
Numbers 18:12 I give you all the freshest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain that the Israelites give to the LORD as their firstfruits.
- חֲמַר chămarwinetranslated this way 6 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H2562Noun · Translated: wine 5, influence of the wine 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Ezra 6:9 Whatever is needed— young bulls, rams, and lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, as well as wheat, salt, wine, and oil, as requested by the priests in Jerusalem— must be given to them daily without fail.
Daniel 5:1 Later, King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he drank wine with them.
- עָסִיס âsîssweet winetranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6071Noun · Translated: sweet wine 3, nectar 1, wine 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Isaiah 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Joel 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.
- שֶׁמֶר shemerlees, dregstranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H8105Noun · Translated: dregs 2, aged wine 2, complacency 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Isaiah 25:6 On this mountain the LORD of Hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all the peoples, a feast of aged wine, of choice meat, of finely aged wine.
Greek words (New Testament)
- οἶνος oînoswinetranslated this way 33 times of its 33 uses · Strong’s G3631Noun · Translated: wine 33Full study and all 25 verses →
Matthew 9:17 Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Mark 2:22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into new wineskins.”
- ὄξος óxosvinegar, sour winetranslated this way 6 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G3690Noun · Translated: sour wine 5, wine 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Matthew 27:48 One of them quickly ran and brought a sponge. He filled it with sour wine, put it on a reed, and held it up for Jesus to drink.
Mark 15:36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine. He put it on a reed and held it up for Jesus to drink, saying, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to take Him down.”
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 wine: 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.