Word study
Betray
4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: betray, betrayed, betrays, betraying. 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 “betray” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- בָּגַד bâgadact or deal treacherouslytranslated this way 11 times of its 46 uses · Strong’s H898Verb · Translated: faithless 11, betrayed 6, unfaithful 5, broken faith 3Full study and all 38 verses →
Psalm 73:15 If I had said, “I will speak this way,” then I would have betrayed Your children.
Isaiah 21:2 A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”
- רָמָה râmâhcast, shoottranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H7411Verb · Translated: deceived 3, thrown 2, deceive 2Full study and all 11 verses →
1 Chronicles 12:17 And David went out to meet them, saying, “If you have come to me in peace to help me, my heart will be united with you; but if you have come to betray me to my enemies when my hands are free of violence, may the God of our fathers see it and judge you.”
Lamentations 1:19 I called out to my lovers, but they have betrayed me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they searched for food to keep themselves alive.
- שָׁקַר shâqardo or deal falselytranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H8266Verb · Translated: deal falsely 1, deceive 1, lie 1, betrayed 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Psalm 44:17 All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten You or betrayed Your covenant.
Psalm 89:33 But I will not withdraw My loving devotion from him, nor ever betray My faithfulness.
- גָּלָה gâlâhuncover, removetranslated this way 2 times of its 170 uses · Strong’s H1540Verb · Translated: revealed 14, uncovered 13, exiled 12, sexual relations 11Full study and all 161 verses →
Proverbs 25:9 Argue your case with your neighbor without betraying another’s confidence,
Isaiah 16:3 “Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees.
Greek words (New Testament)
- παραδίδωμι paradídōmiI hand over, deliver, betraytranslated this way 31 times of its 119 uses · Strong’s G3860Verb · Translated: betray 19, handed 19, delivered 10, hand 9Full study and all 117 verses →
Matthew 10:4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
Mark 3:19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus.
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.