noun · neuter
spēlaiem
Strong’sG4693
a cave, den
stem spēlai-6 times in the New Testamentin 6 of 27 books2 of 6 forms occur
What it means
What the word means, in the words of the lexicons out of copyright — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones, wherever each has an entry for it.
σπήλαιον, -ου, τό
[in LXX chiefly for מְעָרָה;]
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G4693 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidspay'-lah-yon
a cavern; by implication, a hiding-place or resort
Fromneuter of a presumed derivative of σπέος (a grotto);
King Jamescave, den.
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
grotto, cavern, NT+5th c.BC+; σ. λῃστῶν den of robbers, LXX+NT; of a grave, NT+1st c.AD+
2 privy parts, LXX
3 place behind the scenes in a theatre, Refs 2nd c.AD+
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.
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 | one singular | more than one plural |
|---|---|---|
| subject or object direct | spēlaiem1×σπήλαιον | spēlaieim |
| of, belonging to genitive | spēlaieu | spēlaieiu |
| to, for dative | spēlaie | spēlaiei1×σπηλαίοις |
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
spēlaie 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.
6 occurrences, every one of them listed
spēlaiem“cave”subject or objectdirect singular1×
John 11:38… erchotō eis tem mnēmeiem; ate de spēlaiem, kai lithos epikeiote epi aute.… to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the …
spēlaiei“caves”to, fordative plural1×
Hebrews 11:38… epi erēmiai planorōntois kai orei kai spēlaiei kai tai opai tau gēau;… deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.
spēlaiem3×
Matthew 21:13… proseuchau kaliti, vis de auton poiavō spēlaiem lēstoiu.… But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Mark 11:17… tei ethnei? vis de poiavē auton spēlaiem lēstoiu.… But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Luke 19:46… oikos proseuchau, vis de auton poiava spēlaiem lēstoiu.… But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
spēlaieim1×
Revelation 6:15… kai eleutheros kruptala heautoin eis teim spēlaieim kai eis tain petrain teiu oreiu;… and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the …