Word study
Contention
3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: contention, contentions. 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 “contention” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מְרִיבָה merîbâhstrife, contentiontranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4808Noun · Translated: contention 1, contended 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Genesis 13:8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no contention between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. After all, we are kinsmen.
- רִיב rîbstrife, disputetranslated this way 1 time of its 61 uses · Strong’s H7379Noun · Translated: case 11, strife 9, dispute 8, cause 8Full study and all 60 verses →
Isaiah 58:4 You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.
- מָדוֹן mâdônstrife, contentiontranslated this way 1 time of its 16 uses · Strong’s H4066Noun · Translated: conflict 4, strife 2, dissension 2, contentious 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Proverbs 23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?
Greek words (New Testament)
- ζήτημα zḗtēmaa question, disputetranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s G2213Noun · Translated: question 1, dispute 1, questions 1, contentions 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Acts 25:19 They only had some contentions with him regarding their own religion and a certain Jesus who had died, but whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
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.
What the Bible says about contention: passages by topic →
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.