Word study
Beg
4 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: begged, beg, begging. 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 “beg” 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)
- חָנַן chânanshew favour, be gracioustranslated this way 3 times of its 76 uses · Strong’s H2603Verb · Translated: gracious 17, mercy 14, merciful 7, favor 4Full study and all 72 verses →
2 Kings 1:13 So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. And the third captain went up, fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, “Man of God, may my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours please be precious in your sight.
Esther 8:3 And once again, Esther addressed the king. She fell at his feet weeping and begged him to revoke the evil scheme of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews.
- אָמַר âmarutter, saytranslated this way 2 times of its 4,555 uses · Strong’s H559Verb · Translated: said 1,531, says 576, say 352, replied 341Full study and all 3,827 verses →
Genesis 30:14 Now during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother, Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
- נָא nâI (we) pray, nowtranslated this way 2 times of its 254 uses · Strong’s H4994Interjection · Translated: Please 165, now 59, pray 9, beg 2Full study and all 244 verses →
2 Samuel 24:10 After David had numbered the troops, his conscience was stricken and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg You to take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”
1 Chronicles 21:8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing. Now I beg You to take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”
- בָּקַשׁ bâqashseektranslated this way 2 times of its 222 uses · Strong’s H1245Verb · Translated: seek 78, sought 21, seeking 13, search 13Full study and all 212 verses →
Esther 7:7 In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him.
Psalm 37:25 I once was young and now am old, yet never have I seen the righteous abandoned or their children begging for bread.
Greek words (New Testament)
- παρακαλέω parakaléōI summon, entreat, admonish, comforttranslated this way 18 times of its 106 uses · Strong’s G3870Verb · Translated: urge 20, encourage 14, begged 13, urged 7Full study and all 104 verses →
Matthew 8:31 So the demons begged Jesus, “If You drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
Mark 1:40 Then a leper came to Jesus, begging on his knees: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
- δέομαι déomaiI request, begtranslated this way 9 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s G1189Verb · Translated: beg 6, pray 4, begged 3, prayed 3Full study and all 22 verses →
Luke 5:12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell facedown and begged Him, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Acts 21:39 But Paul answered, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Now I beg you to allow me to speak to the people.”
- ἐρωτάω erōtáōI ask, question, requesttranslated this way 2 times of its 63 uses · Strong’s G2065Verb · Translated: ask 20, asked 18, question 3, asking 3Full study and all 61 verses →
Luke 16:27 ‘Then I beg you, father,’ he said, ‘send Lazarus to my father’s house,
John 4:47 When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Him to come down and heal his son, who was about to die.
- ἐπαιτέω epaitéōI beg, ask almstranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1871Verb · Translated: beg 1, begging 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Luke 16:3 The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking away my position? I am too weak to dig and too ashamed to beg.
Luke 18:35 As Jesus drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting beside the road, begging.
- προσαιτέω prosaitéōI begtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4319Noun · Translated: beggar 1, begging 1, beg 1Full study and all 2 verses →
John 9:8 At this, his neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging began to ask, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”
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.