Bible word study
Tsela (Strong’s H6763): Meaning in the Bible
Tsela (צֵלָע) is the Hebrew word numbered H6763 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as a rib (as curved), literally (of the body) or figuratively (of a door, i.e. leaf); hence, a side, literally (of a person) or figuratively (of an object or the sky, i.e. quarter); architecturally, a (especially floor or ceiling) timber or plank (single or collective, i.e. a flooring). In the King James Bible it is translated beam, board, chamber, corner, leaf.
- Original wordצֵלָע
- Transliterationtsêlâʻ
- Pronunciationtsay-law'
- Part of speechnoun (feminine) (n-f)
- Strong’s numberH6763
- LanguageHebrew
The full Strong’s definition
Derivation. or (feminine) צַלְעָה; from H6760;
How the King James Bible translates it
Where Tsela appears in the Bible
In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Tsela (H6763) stands behind 41 English renderings in 33 verses across 7 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Exodus (18), Ezekiel (11), 1 Kings (7).
How the King James Bible renders Tsela, by count
- side15 of 41 (37 percent)
- chambers8 of 41 (20 percent)
- sides4 of 41 (10 percent)
- chamber3 of 41 (7 percent)
- boards2 of 41 (5 percent)
- corners2 of 41 (5 percent)
Three places to read Tsela
- Genesis 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
- Exodus 36:31 And he made bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,
- 1 Kings 6:34 And the two doors were of fir tree: the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding.
Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.
Why the word matters
Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Tsela in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.
The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.
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From the word to the Word
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