Word study

World

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “world”. 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 “world” 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)

  • תֵּבֵל têbêlworldtranslated this way 31 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s H8398Noun  ·  Translated: world 29, earth 3, inhabited world 1, of all 1

    1 Samuel 2:8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s, and upon them He has set the world.

    2 Samuel 22:16 The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

    Full study and all 35 verses →
  • אֶרֶץ eretsearth, landtranslated this way 5 times of its 2,375 uses · Strong’s H776Noun  ·  Translated: land 1,483, earth 564, ground 119, lands 41

    Genesis 11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common form of speech.

    Genesis 11:9 That is why it is called Babel, for there the LORD confused the language of the whole world, and from that place the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.

    Full study and all 2,120 verses →
  • חֶלֶד cheledduration, worldtranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H2465Noun  ·  Translated: world 2, life 1, lifetime 1, briefness 1

    Psalm 17:14 from such men, O LORD, by Your hand— from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children.

    Psalm 49:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all inhabitants of the world,

    Full study and all 5 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κόσμος kósmosthe world, universetranslated this way 166 times of its 183 uses · Strong’s G2889Noun  ·  Translated: world 163, of 12, whole world 2

    Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

    Mark 8:36 What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

    Full study and all 151 verses →
  • οἰκουμένη oikouménēthe inhabited (Roman) worldtranslated this way 11 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s G3625Noun  ·  Translated: world 11, empire 1, earth 1

    Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

    Luke 4:5 Then the devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.

    Full study and all 13 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 world: 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.