Important Hebrew Words
Hebrew words that accumulate meaning in order to explicate biblical theology
To build (בָּנָה)
“And the side that the Lord God had taken from the man he built into a woman and brought her to the man.” (Genesis 2:22)
“Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. When he built a city, he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.” (Genesis 4:17)
“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.” (Genesis 8:20)
To close (סָגַר)
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his sides and closed up its place with flesh. (Genesis 2:21)
And those that entered [the ark], male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him [Noah] in. (Genesis 7:16)
Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him. (Genesis 19:6)
And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered by it. Therefore it shall remain shut.” (Ezekiel 44:2)
To subdue (כָּבַשׁ)
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” (Genesis 1:28)
And every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord, until he has driven out his enemies from before him and the land is subdued before the Lord. (Numbers 32:21-22)
Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them. (Joshua 18:1)
These also King David dedicated to the Lord, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued. (2 Samuel 8:11)
Tree (עֵץ)
And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:11)
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. (Genesis 1:29)
And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)
And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life… Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever. (Genesis 3:17, 22)
Make yourself an Ark of gopher wood. (Genesis 6:14)
And the Lord appeared to him [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day…Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree… Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. (Genesis 18:1, 4, 8)
So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. (Genesis 22:3)
Side (צְלָעֹת)
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his sides and closed up its place with flesh. And the side that the Lord God had taken from the man he built into a woman and brought her to the man. (Genesis 2:21-22)
You shall cast four rings of gold for it [the Ark] and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side of it. (Exodus 25:12)
And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the Ark to carry the Ark by them. (Exodus 25:15)
And for the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side twenty frames. (Exodus 26:20)
On your belly (גָּחוֹן)
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go.” (Genesis 3:14)
Whatever goes on its belly, and whatever goes on all fours, or whatever has many feet, any swarming thing that swarms on the ground, you shall not eat, for they are detestable. (Leviticus 11:42)
Your desire (תְּשׁוּקַת)
To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be towards your husband, but he shall rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16)
And if you [Cain] do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7)
I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me. (Song of Songs 7:10)
Serpent (נָחָשׁ)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. (Genesis 3:1)
The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. (Exodus 4:2-4)
Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. (Numbers 21:6-9)
In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isaiah 27:1)
Flesh (בָּשָׂר)
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:21-24)
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. (Genesis 6:3-4)
And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. (Genesis 6:12-13)
For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. (Genesis 6:17)
And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. (Genesis 6:19)
God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.” (Genesis 9:17)
You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. (Genesis 17:11)
Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant. (Genesis 17:14)
Till (עָבַד) and keep (שָׁמַר)
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister to him. They shall keep guard over him and over the whole congregation before the tent of meeting, as they minister at the tabernacle. (Numbers 3:5-7)
The generations of (תּוֹלְדוֹת)
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. (Genesis 2:4)
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. (Genesis 5:1)
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9)
These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. (Genesis 10:1)
Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron. (Ruth 4:18)
To rule (מֶמְשָׁלָה)
And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:16-18)
And all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. (1 Kings 9:19)
Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul! (Psalm 103:22)
In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. (Isaiah 22:20-21)