Word study

Cun

5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: cunning, cun. 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 “cun” 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)

  • עָרַם ârambe shrewd, craftytranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6191Verb  ·  Translated: extremely cunning 1, craftiness 1, cunning 1, prudent 1

    1 Samuel 23:22 Please go and prepare further. Investigate and watch carefully where he goes and who has seen him there, for I am told that he is extremely cunning.

    Psalm 83:3 With cunning they scheme against Your people and conspire against those You cherish,

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • פָּתַל pâthaltwisttranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6617Verb  ·  Translated: show yourself shrewd 2, wrestled 1, cunning 1, crooked 1

    Job 5:13 He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning.

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • נָצַר nâtsarwatch, guard, keeptranslated this way 1 time of its 59 uses · Strong’s H5341Verb  ·  Translated: keep 10, guard 9, obey 7, preserve 5

    Proverbs 7:10 Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.

    Full study and all 58 verses →
  • חָכָם châkâmwisetranslated this way 1 time of its 136 uses · Strong’s H2450Adjective  ·  Translated: wise 86, wise men 8, wise man 6, skilled 5

    Isaiah 3:3 the commander of fifty and the dignitary, the counselor, the cunning magician, and the clever enchanter.

    Full study and all 133 verses →
  • כּוּן KûnKuntranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H3560Noun  ·  Translated: Cun 1

    1 Chronicles 18:8 And from Tibhath and Cun, cities of Hadadezer, David took a large amount of bronze, with which Solomon made the bronze Sea, the pillars, and various bronze articles.

    Full study and its 1 verse →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πανουργία panourgíacunning, craftinesstranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s G3834Noun  ·  Translated: duplicity 1, craftiness 1, deceit 1, cunning 1

    2 Corinthians 11:3 I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • κυβεία kybeíatrickery, sleighttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2940Noun  ·  Translated: cunning 1

    Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.

    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.