σελήνη
moon
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
- Dative
- The case of the indirect object, means, or location — “to / for / with / in.”
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where G4582 appears in the Book of Matthew — 1 distinct verse. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Matthew
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
σεληνη — transliterated selḗnē — is a Greek noun carrying the sense “moon.” Debuting at Matthew 24:29, it then recurs through the corpus. Spanning 9 verses in 6 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Greek New Testament. Its uses concentrate in Revelation (44% of all occurrences). From the same root come αιρεομαι, αιρεσις and αιρετιζω. See the sense tree, 9-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G4582 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 9
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 9 distinct verses.
- 6 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 6 of 27 New Testament books.
- #1,140
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Greek words (rank 1,140 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 9 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Revelation 4 verses 44%
- Matthew 1 verse 11%
- Mark 1 verse 11%
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 9 distinct verses.
- Johannine 4 verses · 44%
- Revelation 4 verses · 44%
- Gospels 3 verses · 33%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 2 verses · 22%
- Pauline corpus 1 verse · 11%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Moon 9×
- American Standard Version: Moon 8×
- Berean Standard Bible: Moon 9×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Moon 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G4582 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G4582 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G4582 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G4582 across 9 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Senses in Thayer's
The 1 sense Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- the moon
Word origin
Derived from αιρεομαι (hairéomai) (G138) — to choose.
From σέλας selas ( brilliancy ; probably akin to the alternate of G138 through the idea of attractiveness ); the moon : - moon.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 3 distinct written forms G4582 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| σελήνη selḗnē | Noun, Nominative, Singular, Feminine | Matthew 24:29 | 5 |
| σελήνης selḗnēs | Noun, Genitive, Singular, Feminine | 1 Corinthians 15:41 | 3 |
| σελήνῃ selḗnē | Noun, Dative, Singular, Feminine | Luke 21:25 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G4582, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- αιρεσις haíresis G139 choice
- αιρετιζω hairetízō G140 to choose
- αλωσις hálōsis G259 capture
- αρπαζω harpázō G726 to seize
- ελκυω helkýō G1670 to draw
- ηλιος hḗlios G2246 sun
- θελω thélō G2309 to will
- ιλεως híleōs G2436 merciful
- σπειρα speîra G4686 cohort
- συλαω syláō G4813 to rob
- συρω sýrō G4951 to drag
- τιλλω tíllō G5089 to pluck
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 15 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word σεληνη appears 31 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 31 verses in 14 books.
- 31
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 31
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 14 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 14 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 37:9 σελήνη
- Deuteronomy 4:19 σελήνη
- Joshua 10:12 σελήνη
- 2 Kings 23:5 σελήνη
- Job 25:5 σελήνη
- Psalms 8:4 σελήνη
- Ecclesiastes 12:2 σελήνη
- Song of Solomon 6:10 σελήνη
- Isaiah 13:10 σελήνη
- Jeremiah 8:2 σελήνη
- Ezekiel 32:7 σελήνη
- Daniel 3:62 σελήνη
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G4582) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 37:9 σελήνη He dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, "Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream: and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me."
- Deuteronomy 4:19 σελήνη and lest you lift up your eyes to the sky, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, even all the host of the sky, you are drawn away and worship them, and serve them, which Yahweh your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole sky.
- Deuteronomy 17:3 σελήνη and has gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, or the sun, or the moon, or any of the host of the sky, which I have not commanded;
- Joshua 10:12 σελήνη Then spoke Joshua to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel; and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand you still on Gibeon; You, Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.
- Joshua 10:13 σελήνη The sun stood still, and the moon stayed, Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies. Isn't this written in the book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the midst of the sky, and didn't hurry to go down about a whole day.
- 2 Kings 23:5 σελήνη He put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of the sky.
- Job 25:5 σελήνη Behold, even the moon has no brightness, And the stars are not pure in his sight;
- Job 31:26 σελήνη If I have seen the sun when it shined, Or the moon moving in splendor,
- Psalms 8:4 σελήνη What is man, that you think of him? The son of man, that you care for him?
- Psalms 71:5 σελήνη For you are my hope, Lord Yahweh; My confidence from my youth.
- Psalms 71:7 σελήνη I am a marvel to many, But you are my strong refuge.
- Psalms 88:38 σελήνη
- Psalms 103:19 σελήνη Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens. His kingdom rules over all.
- Psalms 120:6 σελήνη My soul has had her dwelling too long With him who hates peace.
- Psalms 135:9 σελήνη Who sent signs and wonders into the midst of you, Egypt, On Pharaoh, and on all his servants;
- Psalms 148:3 σελήνη Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you shining stars!
- Ecclesiastes 12:2 σελήνη Before the sun, the light, the moon, and the stars are darkened, And the clouds return after the rain;
- Song of Solomon 6:10 σελήνη Who is she who looks forth as the morning, Beautiful as the moon, Clear as the sun, Awesome as an army with banners?
- Isaiah 13:10 σελήνη For the stars of the sky and the constellations of it shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in its going forth, and the moon shall not cause its light to shine.
- Isaiah 30:26 σελήνη Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.
- Isaiah 60:19 σελήνη The sun shall be no more your light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light to you: but Yahweh will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory.
- Isaiah 60:20 σελήνη Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for Yahweh will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.
- Jeremiah 8:2 σελήνη and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.
- Jeremiah 38:36 σελήνη
- Ezekiel 32:7 σελήνη When I shall extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars of it dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.
- Daniel 3:62 σελήνη
- Daniel 4:5 σελήνη I saw a dream which made me afraid; and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.
- Joel 2:10 σελήνη The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, And the stars withdraw their shining.
- Joel 3:4 σελήνη "Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon, And all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.
- Joel 4:15 σελήνη
- Habakkuk 3:11 σελήνη The sun and moon stood still in the sky, At the light of your arrows as they went, At the shining of your glittering spear.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G4582) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
