Word study

Cure

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אָסַף âsaphgather, removetranslated this way 4 times of its 193 uses · Strong’s H622Verb  ·  Translated: gathered 56, gather 27, assembled 13, assemble 8

    2 Kings 5:3 She said to her mistress, “If only my master would go to the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his leprosy.”

    2 Kings 5:6 And the letter that he took to the king of Israel stated: “With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman, so that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

    Full study and all 183 verses →
  • רָפָא râphâhealtranslated this way 2 times of its 65 uses · Strong’s H7495Verb  ·  Translated: heal 22, healed 16, heals 5, physicians 3

    Deuteronomy 28:27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured.

    Hosea 5:13 When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.

    Full study and all 61 verses →
  • אָנַשׁ ânashbe weak, sicktranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H605Verb  ·  Translated: incurable 5, became ill 1, beyond cure 1, despair 1

    Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

    Jeremiah 30:15 Why do you cry out over your wound? Your pain has no cure! Because of your great iniquity and your numerous sins I have done these things to you.

    Full study and all 9 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • θεραπεύω therapeúōI care for, attend, serve, healtranslated this way 2 times of its 43 uses · Strong’s G2323Verb  ·  Translated: healed 25, heal 12, healing 3, cure 1

    Luke 9:1 Then Jesus called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and power to cure diseases.

    Acts 28:9 After this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured as well.

    Full study and all 42 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.