Word study
Affair
4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: affairs, affair. 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 “affair” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- דָּבָר dâbârspeech, wordtranslated this way 4 times of its 1,244 uses · Strong’s H1697Noun · Translated: word 342, words 299, acts 51, Chronicles 42Full study and all 1,120 verses →
1 Samuel 22:15 Was that day the first time I inquired of God for him? Far be it from me! Let not the king accuse your servant or any of my father’s household, for your servant knew nothing of this whole affair — not in part or in whole.”
2 Samuel 14:20 Joab your servant has done this to bring about this change of affairs, but my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that happens in the land.”
- אֵל êlmotion totranslated this way 1 time of its 4,199 uses · Strong’s H413Preposition · Translated: to 1,941, to me 285, to you 149, to him 137Full study and all 3,455 verses →
- פְּקֻדָּה pequddâhoversight, mustering, visitation, storetranslated this way 1 time of its 30 uses · Strong’s H6486Noun · Translated: punishment 8, oversight 2Full study and all 29 verses →
1 Chronicles 26:30 From the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his relatives, 1,700 capable men, had charge of the affairs of Israel west of the Jordan for all the work of the LORD and for the service of the king.
- הֲלִיכָה hălîkâha going, way, travelling-companytranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s H1979Noun · Translated: travelers 1, procession 1, march 1, affairs 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Proverbs 31:27 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Greek words (New Testament)
- πραγματεία pragmateíaa business, an occupationtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4230Noun · Translated: affairs 1Full study and its 1 verse →
2 Timothy 2:4 A soldier refrains from entangling himself in civilian affairs, in order to please the one who enlisted him.
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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.