Greek word · G3613

οἰκητήριον

oikētērion

dwelling

A dwelling place or residence: the place where someone actually lives, as opposed to a building in the abstract.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 21, 2026

What it means

οἰκητήριον, -ου, τό

(οἰκητήρ = οἰκήτωρ, an inhabitant), [in LXX: 2Ma.11:2, 3Ma.2:15 * ;]

a habitation: Jude 1:6; trop., 2 Corinthians 5:2.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: A dwelling place or residence: the place where someone actually lives, as opposed to a building in the abstract.
Against the English: KJV 'house', WEB 'habitation', BSB/ESV 'heavenly dwelling', NLT 'heavenly bodies'. The NLT renders what the image is generally taken to mean (the resurrection body) but drops the metaphor.
Used elsewhere in the period: Rare in the NT: only here and Jude 6, where the angels 'abandoned their own dwelling', meaning their proper heavenly sphere of existence. It is used in Hellenistic Greek for a residence, e.g. 2 Macc 11:2 of a city made a dwelling for Greeks (BDAG).

Range of meaning: Dwelling, residence, habitation. A rarer, slightly elevated form of oikos/oikēsis.
Against the English: 'Habitation' (KJV), 'proper dwelling' (BSB, NIV, ESV), 'proper abode' (NASB). All are accurate. NLT's 'the place where they belonged' brings out the idea of proper place well.
Used elsewhere in the period: In 2 Cor 5:2 it is the 'dwelling from heaven' (the resurrection body). In 2 Macc 11:2 it is a residence. 1 Enoch 15:3, 7 rebukes the Watchers: 'Why have you left the high, holy and eternal heaven?' and says of spirit-beings, 'in heaven is their dwelling'.

2 Corinthians · 1

2 Corinthians 5:2 οἰκητήριον dwelling

For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,

Here: A place where one lives. It picks up the house language of v.1 ('building', 'house') and stands for the new mode of bodily existence God provides. It comes first in its clause for emphasis.

Jude · 1

Jude 1:6 οἰκητήριον, dwelling,

And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.

Here: Their place of residence, meaning heaven as the proper home of spirit-beings. In the only other New Testament use (2 Cor 5:2) it means a heavenly dwelling or body.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.