Word study

Advance

6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: advance, advanced, advances, advancing. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “advance” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עָלָה âlâhgo up, ascend, climbtranslated this way 11 times of its 873 uses · Strong’s H5927Verb  ·  Translated: go 118, went 107, brought 56, come 42

    Joshua 10:5 So the five kings of the Amorites— the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon— joined forces and advanced with all their armies. They camped before Gibeon and made war against it.

    2 Kings 14:11 But Amaziah would not listen, so Jehoash king of Israel advanced. He and King Amaziah of Judah faced each other at Beth-shemesh in Judah.

    Full study and all 807 verses →
  • בּוֹא bôcome in, come, go in, gotranslated this way 6 times of its 2,442 uses · Strong’s H935Verb  ·  Translated: come 358, came 298, bring 209, brought 201Full study and all 2,217 verses →
  • עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 5 times of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb  ·  Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35

    Joshua 6:7 And he told the people, “Advance and march around the city, with the armed troops going ahead of the ark of the LORD.”

    Judges 11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then through Mizpah of Gilead. And from there he advanced against the Ammonites.

    Full study and all 487 verses →
  • נָגַשׁ nâgashdraw near, approachtranslated this way 4 times of its 123 uses · Strong’s H5066Verb  ·  Translated: approached 24, approach 12, come near 9, Bring 9

    2 Samuel 10:13 So Joab and his troops advanced to fight the Arameans, who fled before him.

    1 Chronicles 19:14 So Joab and his troops advanced to fight the Arameans, who fled before him.

    Full study and all 110 verses →
  • קָרַב qârabcome near, approachtranslated this way 2 times of its 276 uses · Strong’s H7126Verb  ·  Translated: present 65, bring 18, approached 16, presented 14

    Joshua 8:5 Then I and all the troops with me will advance on the city. When they come out against us as they did the first time, we will flee from them.

    Judges 20:24 On the second day the Israelites advanced against the Benjamites.

    Full study and all 258 verses →
  • הָלַךְ hâlakgo, come, walktranslated this way 2 times of its 1,461 uses · Strong’s H1980Verb  ·  Translated: go 338, went 173, walk 116, Come 84Full study and all 1,299 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • προετοιμάζω proetoimázōI prepare beforehand, predestinetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G4282Verb  ·  Translated: prepared in advance 2

    Romans 9:23 What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory —

    Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • προκόπτω prokóptōI advance, make progresstranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G4298Verb  ·  Translated: grew 1, nearly 1, advancing 1, will 1

    Galatians 1:14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

    2 Timothy 3:9 But they will not advance much further. For just like Jannes and Jambres, their folly will be plain to everyone.

    Full study and all 6 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.