Grow With Me
Grow With Me

בְּרִית

berit · covenant

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H1285 · appears 284 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

berit (בְּרִית) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “covenant”.

A solemn commitment between two parties, with promises and obligations. When God makes it, he is the one who offers it and guarantees it.

How to say it

be·rit

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

  1. A solemn agreement between people or nations.
  2. The commitment God makes with his people, with promises and commands.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Covenant: a solemn commitment between two parties, with promises and obligations. BDB defines it as a covenant or agreement, between people and between God and man.

Historical and cultural background

In Exodus 24:7-8 Moses reads “the book of the covenant”, the people promise to obey, and he splashes on the people “the blood of the covenant”.

How we translate it

“Covenant” 284 times, with no variation. This edition's glossary sets “covenant” with no deviations. The verbs are kept apart: כָּרַת בְּרִית, “make a covenant”; הֵקִים בְּרִית, “establish the covenant”; עָבַר בְּרִית, “transgress the covenant”. “A covenant of salt” is left literal, with a note.

Related words

Comes from

Words that come from it

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

  • Genesis 6:18

    But I will establish my covenant with you; and you will come into the ark, you and your sons and your wife and the wives of your sons with you.

  • Genesis 9:9

    “And I, look, I am establishing my covenant with you and with your offspring after you,

  • Genesis 9:11

    And I will establish my covenant with you: and never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

  • Genesis 9:12

    And Elohim said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am giving between me and you and every living being that is with you, for generations forever:

  • Genesis 9:13

    my bow I have put in the cloud, and it will be for a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

  • Genesis 9:15

    that I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living being of all flesh; and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

  • Genesis 9:16

    And the bow will be in the cloud, and I will see it to remember the eternal covenant between Elohim and every living being of all flesh that is on the earth.”

  • Genesis 9:17

    And Elohim 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 14:13

    One who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; and they had a covenant with Abram.

  • Genesis 15:18

    On that day YHWH made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:

  • Genesis 17:2

    I will set my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.”

  • Genesis 17:4

    “As for me, look, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

  • Genesis 17:7

    I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations as an eternal covenant, to be Elohim to you and to your offspring after you.

  • Genesis 17:9

    Elohim said to Abraham, “As for you, you will keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

  • Genesis 17:10

    This is my covenant which you will keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: every male among you shall be circumcised.

  • Genesis 17:11

    You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

  • Genesis 17:13

    He must surely be circumcised, the one born in your house and the one bought with your silver; and my covenant will be in your flesh as an eternal covenant.

  • Genesis 17:14

    But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

  • Genesis 17:19

    Elohim said, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him as an eternal covenant for his offspring after him.

  • Genesis 17:21

    But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this appointed time next year.”

  • Genesis 21:27

    Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.

  • Genesis 21:32

    So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines.

  • Genesis 26:28

    They said, “We have clearly seen that YHWH has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an imprecation between us, between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

  • Genesis 31:44

    So now, come, let us make a covenant, I and you, and let it be a witness between me and you.”

  • Exodus 2:24

    Elohim heard their groaning, and Elohim remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

  • Exodus 6:4

    I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their residence as aliens, in which they resided as aliens.

  • Exodus 6:5

    And I have also heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

  • Exodus 19:5

    And now, if you will listen carefully to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special treasure out of all the peoples; for all the earth is mine;

  • Exodus 23:32

    You shall not make a covenant with them or with their gods.

  • Exodus 24:7

    Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that YHWH has spoken we will do, and we will listen.”

  • Exodus 24:8

    Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people and said, “Look, the blood of the covenant that YHWH has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

  • Exodus 31:16

    And the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations as an eternal covenant.

  • Exodus 34:10

    And he said, “Look, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do wonders that have not been created in all the earth or in any nation; and all the people among whom you are shall see the work of YHWH, for it is fearsome, what I am doing with you.

  • Exodus 34:12

    Take care not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst.

  • Exodus 34:15

    Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they prostitute themselves after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, and you eat of his sacrifice,

  • Exodus 34:27

    And YHWH said to Moses, “Write for yourself these words, for according to these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.”

  • Exodus 34:28

    And he was there with YHWH forty days and forty nights; bread he did not eat, and water he did not drink. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten words.

  • Leviticus 2:13

    Every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; and you shall not leave out the salt of the covenant of your Elohim from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall present salt.

  • Leviticus 24:8

    Every Sabbath day he shall arrange it before YHWH continually, from the sons of Israel, as an eternal covenant.

  • Leviticus 26:9

    And I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will establish my covenant with you.

And 244 more times.