Word study

Behave

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: behave, behaved, behaves. 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 “behave” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • זוּד zûdbe presumptuoustranslated this way 1 time of its 10 uses · Strong’s H2102Verb  ·  Translated: cooking 1, treated israel with arrogance 1, acts willfully 1, presumptuously 1

    Deuteronomy 17:13 Then all the people will hear and be afraid, and will no longer behave arrogantly.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • עָשָׂה âsâhdo, maketranslated this way 1 time of its 2,478 uses · Strong’s H6213Verb  ·  Translated: done 292, made 265, make 143, did 112Full study and all 2,206 verses →
  • שָׁחַת shâchathgo to ruin (?)translated this way 1 time of its 145 uses · Strong’s H7843Verb  ·  Translated: destroy 58, destroyed 13, corrupt 7, corrupted 5

    2 Chronicles 27:2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done. In addition, he did not enter the temple of the LORD. But the people still behaved corruptly.

    Full study and all 135 verses →
  • חָבַל châbalbind, pledgetranslated this way 1 time of its 25 uses · Strong’s H2254Verb  ·  Translated: destroy 3, security 2, broken 2, get collateral 2

    Nehemiah 1:7 We have behaved corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, statutes, and ordinances that You gave Your servant Moses.

    Full study and all 23 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • περιπατέω peripatéōI walk, conduct my lifetranslated this way 2 times of its 95 uses · Strong’s G4043Verb  ·  Translated: walk 35, walking 14, walked 6, walks 5

    Romans 13:13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

    1 Thessalonians 4:12 Then you will behave properly toward outsiders, without being dependent on anyone.

    Full study and all 88 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.