Word study
Arrogant
5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “arrogant”. 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 “arrogant” 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)
- זֵד zêdinsolent, presumptuoustranslated this way 11 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s H2086Adjective · Translated: arrogant 10, willful sins 1, proud 1, call the arrogant 1Full study and all 13 verses →
Psalm 86:14 The arrogant rise against me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life; they have no regard for You.
Isaiah 13:11 I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless.
- זוּד zûdbe presumptuoustranslated this way 2 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H2102Verb · Translated: cooking 1, treated israel with arrogance 1, acts willfully 1, presumptuously 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Nehemiah 9:16 But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.
Nehemiah 9:29 You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They turned a stubborn shoulder; they stiffened their necks and would not obey.
- גָּאוֹן gâônexaltationtranslated this way 2 times of its 49 uses · Strong’s H1347Noun · Translated: pride 21, majesty 6, proud 4, thickets 4Full study and all 45 verses →
Proverbs 8:13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.
Ezekiel 16:49 Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.
- יָהִיר yâhîrproud, haughtytranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H3093Adjective · Translated: arrogant man 1, arrogant 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Proverbs 21:24 Mocker is the name of the proud and arrogant man — of him who acts with excessive pride.
Habakkuk 2:5 and wealth indeed betrays him. He is an arrogant man never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself and collects all the peoples as his own.
- זָדוֹן zâdôninsolence, presumptuousnesstranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H2087Noun · Translated: pride 5, presumptuously 2, arrogant 2, Arrogance 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Jeremiah 50:31 “Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
Jeremiah 50:32 The arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities to consume all those around him.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὑπερήφανος hyperḗphanosproud, arroganttranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G5244Adjective · Translated: proud 3, arrogant 2Full study and all 5 verses →
Romans 1:30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.
2 Timothy 3:2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
- φυσιόω physióōI inflate, puff uptranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G5448Verb · Translated: proud 2, take pride 1, become arrogant 1, arrogant 1Full study and all 7 verses →
1 Corinthians 4:18 Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you.
1 Corinthians 4:19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only what these arrogant people are saying, but what power they have.
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.