hilastēriem

Strong’sG2435

a sin offering, covering

stem hilastēri-2 times in the New Testamentin 2 of 27 books1 of 26 forms occur

What it means

A plain-English reading of the word, with the lexicons it draws on — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones — right below it, in full.

AI Summary

ἱλαστήριον refers to the covering of the Ark of the Covenant, often called the mercy-seat — the lid placed over the ark in the Holy of Holies ¹²³⁴.

The word also refers to something that serves to atone for sin or turn away wrath: a propitiatory offering, sacrifice, or means of atonement, used of Christ as the one through whom sins are propitiated ¹²³⁴.

Sources: 1 Abbott-Smith 2 Strong's 3 LSJ 4 Dodson. Condensed by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 on 2026-09-24 — it may still misstate what these say; check them yourself if it matters to you.

The lexicons it was drawn from, in full:

Abbott-Smith — the 1922 lexicon entry, in full

† ἱλαστήριος, -α, -ον

(< ἱλάσκομαι), [in LXX: IV Mac 17:22; neut., Ex 25:16(17) ff. 31:7 35:12 38:5 (37:6) ff., Le 16:2, 13 ff. Nu 7:89 (כַּפֹּרֶת), Ez 43:14, 17, 20 (עֲזָרָה) Am 9:1 (on the original here, v. Deiss., BS, 127)*;]

propitiatory (μνῆμα, FlJ, Ant., xvi, 7, 1; θάνατος, II Mac, l.c.): of Christ, Ro 3:25; as subst., το ἱ. (sc. ἐπίθεμα, Ex 25:16, 17, where the word first occurs in LXX and where ἱ. ἐ. = כַּפֹּרֶת (q.v. in BDB, s.v.), elsewhere rendered simply τὸ ἱ; cf. Deiss., 124 ff.; Westc., He., in l.), He 9:5.†

G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.

Strong’s G2435 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from

Saidhil-as-tay'-ree-on

an expiatory (place or thing), i.e. (concretely) an atoning victim, or (specially) the lid of the Ark (in the Temple)

Fromneuter of a derivative of G2433;

King Jamesmercyseat, propitiation.

James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.

Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in

ἱλᾰσ-τήριος, α, ον
(ος, ον Refs 2nd c.AD+, propitiatory, offered in propitiation, μνῆμα LXX+1st c.AD+; θυσίαι Refs
II ἱλαστήριον ἐπίθεμα, the mercy-seat, covering of the ark in the Holy of Holies, LXX alone as substantive,LXX+NT+1st c.AD+
II.2 (i.e. ἀνάθημα) propitiatory gift or offering, NT; of a monument, Refs
II.3 monastery, Men.Prot.p.15 Refs 4th c.BC+

H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.

Translated as

Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.

mercy seat1×propitiation1×

Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.

Biblang forms

Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.

Job in the sentence case	masculine singular	feminine singular	neuter singular	masculine plural	feminine plural	neuter plural
subject nominative	hilastērios	hilastērias	hilastēriem2×ἱλαστήριον	hilastēriois	hilastēriais	hilastērieim
object accusative	hilastērion	hilastērian		hilastērioin	hilastēriain
direct address vocative	hilastērior	hilastēriar		hilastērioir	hilastēriair
of, belonging to genitive	hilastēriou	hilastēriau	hilastērieu	hilastērioiu	hilastēriaiu	hilastērieiu
to, for dative	hilastērio	hilastēria	hilastērie	hilastērioi	hilastēriai	hilastēriei

Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.

Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them

hilastēristem+oaegender+smnru—its job in the sentence case+—ione · more than one number

hilastēri is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.

same in every form varies — every value shown

Where it appears

Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.

2 occurrences, every one of them listed

hilastēriem“mercy seat”subject or objectdirect singular2×

Romans 3:25“propitiation”hon protitheta tos theos hilastēriem dia pistiau en te autou haime …God presented Him as an atoning sacrifice in His blood through faith, in order to …

Hebrews 9:5… de autau Cheroubeim doxau kataskiazarōnteim tem hilastēriem; peri heiu ouk atō nun legarō …… the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. But we cannot discuss these things …