10 Important Hebrew Words in the Bible to Know

Names may seem like an odd choice to start this list, but God makes a big deal out of names, especially His name, because each name for God communicates something about His characters. The name used for God in Genesis 1:1 is Elohim, which means “supreme One” or “mighty One.”

Yahweh is God’s sacred, personal name—I AM. We see this in Exodus 3. When Moses questioned God about his qualifications to go to Pharaoh, “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14). 

Adonai means “Master” or “Lord,” which shows God’s sovereignty over us. Adonai is one of the most used names for God in the Old Testament. 

Knowing the Hebrew word for name helps us recall the significance of God’s names. Although we’ve only mentioned a few, the whole list is a fruitful study.

It’s also meaningful to study the names God gives to people. For example:

• Eve means means “life” or “living.”
• Abraham means “father of multitudes.”
• Jacob means “supplanter.”

The Old Testament names that the prophets give for the Messiah include Branch (Jeremiah 23:5), Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14), and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

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Exodus 16:10 states, “And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.”

This cloud of glory fell upon and enveloped Mount Sinai when the Lord God gave His Law to His people (Exodus 24:15-16). The Shekinah glory cloud also filled the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38) and Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 8:10-11).

Dr. John D. Currid says, “The shekinah glory is a sign that God’s very being and essence reside amid His people.” He adds, “The greatest manifestation of the dwelling presence of God’s glory (essence/being) among His people is in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The Apostle John tells us that ‘the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14). The Greek word John uses for “dwelt” means “to tabernacle,” a clear reference to the dwelling presence of God in the tabernacle/temple of the Old Testament. The reality is, ‘something greater than the temple is here’ (Matthew 12:6). Jesus is the true glory of God.”

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A covenant is defined as a “bond; a covenant refers to two or more parties bound together.” The first of many covenants instituted by God is the Covenant of Works (sometimes called the Adamic Covenant) found in Genesis. As Ligonier Ministries explains, “We refer to the covenant with Adam as the covenant of works because human effort was the means by which the blessing was to be secured. The good deeds of obedience in being fruitful, taking dominion of the earth, and abstaining from the forbidden tree would have merited eternal life for Adam and his descendants” (Genesis 1:28; Genesis 2:15-17).

The covenants of the Bible overlap and vestiges of each remain to this day and include:

• The Adamic Covenant (Genesis 2:16-17)
• The Covenant of Grace (Genesis 3:15)
• The Noahic Covenant (Genesis 8:20-9:17)
• The Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:1-3; 15; 17; 22:1-19)
• The Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 19-24)
• The Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7; 1 Chronicles 17; Psalm 89)
• The New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

The new covenant portends the Messiah’s arrival—the Lord Jesus Christ and the institution of the New Covenant based on His work on the cross.

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Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology states, “Atonement is God’s work of reconciling His people to Himself—the essential message of the Bible. Beginning in Genesis when God “sacrificed” an animal to cover Adam and Eve, it ends in Revelation, when Jesus Christ brings judgment to the wicked and eternal life to the righteous.”

In the Old Testament, God instituted atonement—the sacrifice of certain animals by priests—to satisfy His wrath against the people’s sins. Since God cannot look upon evil (Habakkuk 1:13), this was a commandment for His people so they could stay in the right relationship with Him.

Atonement describes Christ’s work on the cross, which made our salvation possible. As Trevin Wax tells us, “The atonement is like a multi-faceted diamond. What Christ accomplished on the cross is so massive, and the window into the heart of God is so big that no one explanation or description of the atonement can tell the whole story.”

Jesus shed His blood and drank the cup of God’s wrath as a sacrifice for us so we may surrender to Him in repentance and faith and worship Him forever with clean hearts.

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“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel means “God with us.” This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus was born to Mary (Matthew 1:18-23).

When God answered Moses’ question, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11), His answer included a designation, “But I will be with you…” (Exodus 3:12a). Moses was the man God was with. And so, because Immanuel came and “put on flesh” to be with us, we are the people Jesus is with—forever.

For everyone, especially Christians, Immanuel is the most important Hebrew word to know.

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The Torah has two senses. In one sense, it refers to the Bible’s first five books. In the second sense, it refers to God’s all-important Law: that is, the Ten Commandments handed to Moses on Mt. Sinai and then to the Jews beyond the mountain’s base.

As Moses prepared the people to enter the Promised Land, he gave them the words of God, “You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and His testimonies and His statutes, which He has commanded you” (Deuteronomy 6:17). The people were answerable for following the Law and for teaching it to their children (Deuteronomy 6:7).

God’s law is good; the problem is that sinners cannot keep it. It’s impossible for humans to obey it perfectly; instead, the law serves to reveal sin (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16).

The Law was wholly applicable to the people then, and it has not ceased to be of supreme importance to us. As the Last Adam, Jesus, our perfect Savior, fulfills the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 5:17-20; Romans 10:4). In other words, Jesus fulfills all the Old Testament foretold from the Law to the Prophets. Jesus alone perfectly obeyed God’s law so He could impute His righteousness to us when He died in our place on the cross and rose on the third day.

As Prophet, Priest, and King, Jesus is our perfect law, Savior, and Lord—standing above all the prophets and perfectly able to dispense and adjudicate the Law as Judge (Revelation 19:11-16).

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Holy means set apart, sanctified. Our triune God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—is supreme in His holiness. When Moses came down from the mountain after speaking with God, the people were afraid to talk with him because his face shone from the reflected glory of the Lord. Therefore, Moses donned a veil after each encounter with God (Exodus 34:29-35). God called His people, however, to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 11:44), and they were holy if they honored God and His commandments.

Today, because of Jesus, Christians have intimate access to our holy God through His Word and prayer. We have been granted the position of partakers of the divine (holy) nature (2 Peter 1:4) and are called to be holy. Christ is our difference because we can behold His glory with unveiled faces (2 Corinthians 3:18).

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Peace: a comforting standalone word that the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says is “a condition of freedom from disturbance, whether outwardly, as of a nation from war or enemies, or inwardly, within the soul.” However, Old Testament Israel was rarely at peace with all its acts of rebellion against the Lord and between brothers and nations. Perfect peace has been absent since sin entered man’s history early (Genesis 3:15) and Cain murdered his brother, Abel (Genesis 4:8). From then on, enmity and strife have ravaged people and nations, with only brief periods of peace (e.g. 1 Kings 4:24). In the Old Testament, peace was often directly correlated to and achieved only when people stood in right relationship with God – (Deuteronomy 8:1-2, Deuteronomy 8:5-6, Deuteronomy 8:11, Deuteronomy 8:19-20).

Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, came and brought the means of peace with Him in His propitiation for our sins. In John 14:27, Jesus told His disciples He was leaving them (and us) with His peace. His peace fills every believer because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). In greetings and doxologies throughout the New Testament letters, the writers often include the important prayer for peace for the church (Romans 1:7; Colossians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 13:11, etc.). Peace is an inward and outward manifestation of the Holy Spirit within Christians. 

Often paired with rest, the Sabbath, as God directs in His commandments, is to be honored and kept holy. In essence, it means to stop, cease, or to keep. No regular work was to be done which would detract one from a day of worshipful rest. God said, “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:11).

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day attempted to create manufactured boundaries and exclusions regarding the Sabbath. Jesus confronted them and proclaimed, “The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5). Because Jesus is God, He is Lord and Creator of all, including the Sabbath day. To honor the sabbath and keep it holy, do the same to Jesus (Colossians 2:16-17). His warning to the Pharisees was a declaration of His deity because only God is Lord of the Sabbath.

We are made in God’s image, and as we reflect the Lord Jesus to each other and to a watching world, as He rested, so too are we to rest.

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Tabernacle in Old Testament usage was referred to by God as His dwelling place among His people (Exodus 25:9). Exodus 25:8 shows God telling Moses (while on Mt. Sinai), “And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” The tabernacle was God’s sanctuary. God gave Moses exact details about the construction and usage of the Tabernacle, for it was a holy place.

God had saved the people out of the land of foreign gods, and the people trekked in the wilderness for forty years. God ensured they would honor Him as the only true God (Deuteronomy 6:4); the Tabernacle was part of how they would worship Him.

We see the tabernacle represented in the New Testament in John 1:14, where the word “dwelt” translates to “tabernacled.” Jesus came and tabernacled with us. In Revelation 21:3, we learn God’s dwelling place (tabernacle) will be with humanity. No wonder the book of Revelation ends with these words, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (Revelation 22:20b-21).

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