Word study

Countrymen

3 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “countrymen”. 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 “countrymen” 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)

  • אָח âchbrothertranslated this way 4 times of its 615 uses · Strong’s H251Noun  ·  Translated: brothers 234, brother 211, relatives 36, brother's 18

    Deuteronomy 17:20 Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or to the left, in order that he and his sons may reign many years over his kingdom in Israel.

    Full study and all 562 verses →
  • זֶרַע zerasowing, seed, offspringtranslated this way 1 time of its 220 uses · Strong’s H2233Noun  ·  Translated: descendants 78, offspring 45, seed 34, children 10

    Esther 10:3 For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Xerxes, preeminent among the Jews and highly favored by his many kinsmen, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace to all his countrymen.

    Full study and all 201 verses →
  • רֵעַ rêashouting, roartranslated this way 1 time of its 185 uses · Strong’s H7453Noun  ·  Translated: neighbor 60, another 30, friend 26, neighbor's 22

    Jeremiah 22:13 “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,

    Full study and all 172 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • συγγενής syngenḗsakin, a relativetranslated this way 2 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s G4773Adjective  ·  Translated: relatives 6, relative 2, fellow countrymen 2, flesh and blood 1

    Romans 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow countrymen and fellow prisoners. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

    Romans 16:21 Timothy, my fellow worker, sends you greetings, as do Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my fellow countrymen.

    Full study and all 12 verses →
  • γένος génosoffspring, family, race, kindtranslated this way 1 time of its 16 uses · Strong’s G1085Noun  ·  Translated: people 3, offspring 3, family 2, native 2

    2 Corinthians 11:26 In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers,

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • συμφυλέτης symphylétēsa fellow country-mantranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4853Noun  ·  Translated: countrymen 1

    1 Thessalonians 2:14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Judea that are in Christ Jesus. You suffered from your own countrymen the very things they suffered from the Jews,

    Full study and its 1 verse →
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.