βέλος
arrow
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Accusative-case word in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Case
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
Gender
- Neuter
- Grammatically neuter.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one.
- Singular
- One.
1 distinct verse where G956 appears in the Genitive case, across 1 book. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Luke 1 verse
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.
The Greek noun βελος centers on the idea of “arrow.” With only 2 verses it sits in the long tail of Greek New Testament vocabulary. The word gravitates to Luke (50%), then Ephesians. Debuting at Luke 18:25, it then recurs through the corpus. It shares a root with βαλλω, βαλαντιον and βελτιον. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G956 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 →
- 2
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 2 distinct verses.
- 2 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 2 of 27 New Testament books.
- #2,678
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Greek words (rank 2,678 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 2 occurrences in the concordance →
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 2 distinct verses.
- Gospels 1 verse · 50%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 1 verse · 50%
- Pauline corpus 1 verse · 50%
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: Darts 1×
- American Standard Version: Darts 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Arrows 1×, Needle 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Arrows 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G956 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G956 across 1 tagged occurrence — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G956 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G956 across 1 tagged occurrence — 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.
- a missile, dart, javelin, arrow
Word origin
Derived from βαλλω (bállō) (G906) — to throw.
From G906 ; a missile that is spear or arrow : - dart.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 2 distinct written forms G956 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that case’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| βέλη bélē | Noun, Accusative, Plural, Neuter | Ephesians 6:16 | 1 |
| βελόνης belónēs | Noun, Genitive, Singular, Feminine | Luke 18:25 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G956, 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
- βαλαντιον balántion G905 purse
- βελτιον beltíon G957 better
- βλητεος blētéos G992 to be cast
- βολη bolḗ G1000 throw
- βολις bolís G1002 dart
- παλη pálē G3823 wrestling
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 8 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word βελος appears 35 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 33 verses in 9 books.
- 35
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 33
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Deuteronomy 32:23 βέλος
- 2 Samuel 18:14 βέλος
- 2 Kings 9:24 βέλος
- 2 Chronicles 26:15 βέλος
- Job 6:4 βέλος
- Psalms 7:14 βέλος
- Isaiah 5:28 βέλος
- Lamentations 3:12 βέλος
- Joel 2:8 βέλος
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G956) 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.
- Deuteronomy 32:23 βέλος I will heap evils on them; I will spend my arrows on them:
- Deuteronomy 32:42 βέλος I will make my arrows drunk with blood, My sword shall devour flesh; With the blood of the slain and the captives, From the head of the leaders of the enemy.
- 2 Samuel 18:14 βέλος Then said Joab, I may not wait thus with you. He took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.
- 2 Samuel 22:15 βέλος He sent out arrows, and scattered them; Lightning, and confused them.
- 2 Kings 9:24 βέλος Jehu drew his bow with his full strength, and struck Joram between his arms; and the arrow went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot.
- 2 Kings 13:15 βέλος Elisha said to him, Take bow and arrows; and he took to him bow and arrows.
- 2 Kings 13:17 βέλος He said, Open the window eastward; and he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot; and he shot. He said, Yahweh's arrow of victory, even the arrow of victory over Syria; for you shall strike the Syrians in Aphek, until you have consumed them.
- 2 Kings 19:32 βέλος Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
- 2 Chronicles 26:15 βέλος He made in Jerusalem engines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and on the battlements, with which to shoot arrows and great stones. His name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, until he was strong.
- Job 6:4 βέλος For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
- Job 16:9 βέλος He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me; He has gnashed on me with his teeth: My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
- Job 20:25 βέλος He draws it forth, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.
- Job 30:14 βέλος As through a wide breach they come, In the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.
- Job 34:6 βέλος Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar; My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.'
- Job 39:22 βέλος He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed; Neither does he turn back from the sword.
- Psalms 7:14 βέλος Behold, he travails with iniquity; Yes, he has conceived mischief, And brought forth falsehood.
- Psalms 10:2 βέλος In arrogance, the wicked hunt down the weak; They are caught in the schemes that they devise.
- Psalms 17:15 βέλος As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form.
- Psalms 37:3 βέλος Trust in Yahweh, and do good. Dwell in the land, and enjoy safe pasture.
- Psalms 44:6 βέλος For I will not trust in my bow, Neither shall my sword save me.
- Psalms 56:5 βέλος All day long they twist my words. All their thoughts are against me for evil.
- Psalms 63:8 βέλος My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up.
- Psalms 76:18 βέλος
- Psalms 90:5 βέλος You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass.
- Psalms 119:4 βέλος You have commanded your precepts, That we should fully obey them.
- Psalms 126:4 βέλος Restore our fortunes again, Yahweh, Like the streams in the Negev.
- Psalms 143:6 βέλος I spread forth my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a parched land. Selah.
- Isaiah 5:28 βέλος Whose arrows are sharp, And all their bows bent. Their horses' hoofs will be like flint, And their wheels like a whirlwind.
- Isaiah 7:24 βέλος People will go there with arrows and with bow, because all the land will be briers and thorns.
- Isaiah 37:33 βέλος Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
- Isaiah 49:2 βέλος and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand has he hid me: and he has made me a polished shaft; in his quiver has he kept me close:
- Lamentations 3:12 βέλος He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
- Joel 2:8 βέλος Neither does one jostle another; They march everyone in his path, And they burst through the defenses, And don't break ranks.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G956) 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.
