Word study
Ago
5 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “ago”. 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 “ago” 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)
- אָז âzat that time, thentranslated this way 5 times of its 119 uses · Strong’s H227Adverb · Translated: then 63, time 23, long ago 5, and 4Full study and all 116 verses →
Psalm 93:2 Your throne was established long ago; You are from all eternity.
Isaiah 44:8 Do not tremble or fear. Have I not told you and declared it long ago? You are My witnesses! Is there any God but Me? There is no other Rock; I know not one.”
- רָחוֹק râchôqdistant, fartranslated this way 4 times of its 84 uses · Strong’s H7350Adjective · Translated: far 20, afar 13, distant 11, distance 10Full study and all 84 verses →
2 Kings 19:25 Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.
Isaiah 22:11 You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or consider Him who planned it long ago.
- קֶדֶם qedemfront, east, aforetimetranslated this way 4 times of its 85 uses · Strong’s H6924Noun · Translated: east 35, old 13, eastern 5, east side 4Full study and all 82 verses →
Nehemiah 12:46 For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there were directors for the singers and for the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
Psalm 74:2 Remember Your congregation, which You purchased long ago and redeemed as the tribe of Your inheritance — Mount Zion, where You dwell.
- עוֹלָם ôlâmlong duration, antiquity, futuritytranslated this way 3 times of its 341 uses · Strong’s H5769Noun · Translated: forever 114, everlasting 60, endures forever 43, permanent 38Full study and all 324 verses →
Joshua 24:2 And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods.
Isaiah 46:9 Remember what happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me.
- יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 2 times of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun · Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72Full study and all 1,744 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- πάλαι pálaiof old, long agotranslated this way 3 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G3819Adverb · Translated: long ago 3, past 2, along 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Matthew 11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Luke 10:13 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
- πρό próbeforetranslated this way 3 times of its 47 uses · Strong’s G4253Preposition · Translated: before 31, ahead 5, at 3, time ago 2Full study and all 47 verses →
Acts 5:36 Some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men joined him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.
2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows.
- ἀπό apófrom, away fromtranslated this way 2 times of its 549 uses · Strong’s G575Preposition · Translated: from 363, of 55, by 20, in 16Full study and all 517 verses →
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.