Word study
Declare
8 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: declares, declared, declare, declaring. 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 “declare” 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)
- נְאֻם neumutterancetranslated this way 364 times of its 376 uses · Strong’s H5002Noun · Translated: declares 359, prophecy 6, oracle 3, Thus declares 3Full study and all 358 verses →
Genesis 22:16 saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,
Numbers 14:28 So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say.
- אָמַר âmarutter, saytranslated this way 68 times of its 4,555 uses · Strong’s H559Verb · Translated: said 1,531, says 576, say 352, replied 341Full study and all 3,827 verses →
Genesis 9:26 He also declared: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the servant of Shem.
Genesis 19:9 “Get out of the way!” they replied. And they declared, “This one came here as a foreigner, and he is already acting like a judge! Now we will treat you worse than them.” And they pressed in on Lot and moved in to break down the door.
- נָגַד nâgadbe conspicuoustranslated this way 31 times of its 360 uses · Strong’s H5046Verb · Translated: tell 83, told 67, reported 31, declare 18Full study and all 339 verses →
Deuteronomy 4:13 He declared to you His covenant, which He commanded you to follow — the Ten Commandments that He wrote on two tablets of stone.
1 Samuel 24:18 And you have declared this day how you have treated me well, for when the LORD delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me.
- סָפַר sâpharcounttranslated this way 14 times of its 154 uses · Strong’s H5608Verb · Translated: scribe 41, count 19, told 15, declare 13Full study and all 150 verses →
1 Chronicles 16:24 Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.
Psalm 9:14 that I may declare all Your praises — that within the gates of Daughter Zion I may rejoice in Your salvation.
- דָבַר dâbarspeaktranslated this way 11 times of its 1,113 uses · Strong’s H1696Verb · Translated: speak 209, said 157, spoken 142, spoke 110Full study and all 1,025 verses →
Exodus 32:13 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”
Numbers 14:17 So now I pray, may the power of my Lord be magnified, just as You have declared:
- עָנָה ânâhanswer, respondtranslated this way 3 times of its 317 uses · Strong’s H6030Verb · Translated: answered 79, answer 75, replied 47, respond 14Full study and all 308 verses →
Deuteronomy 21:7 and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it.
Job 32:6 So Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite declared: “I am young in years, while you are old; that is why I was timid and afraid to tell you what I know.
- עֲנָה ănâhanswertranslated this way 2 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s H6032Verb · Translated: replied 6, answered 3, said 3, declared 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Daniel 3:28 Nebuchadnezzar declared, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him. They violated the king’s command and risked their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.
Daniel 7:2 Daniel declared: “In my vision in the night I looked, and suddenly the four winds of heaven were churning up the great sea.
- חָוָה châvâhtell, declaretranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H2331Verb · Translated: declare 2, inform 1, tell 1, show 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Job 32:10 Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me; I too will declare what I know.’
Job 32:17 I too will answer; yes, I will declare what I know.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἔπω épōto speak or say (by word or writing)translated this way 23 times of its 962 uses · Strong’s G2036Verb · Translated: said 426, asked 95, told 88, replied 69Full study and all 891 verses →
Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
Mark 2:27 Then Jesus declared, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
- λέγω légōI say, speaktranslated this way 13 times of its 993 uses · Strong’s G3004Verb · Translated: said 216, tell 164, say 105, saying 86Full study and all 936 verses →
Matthew 21:13 And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Mark 10:35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and declared, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”
- φημί phēmíI saytranslated this way 8 times of its 62 uses · Strong’s G5346Verb · Translated: said 25, replied 15, declared 6, asked 3Full study and all 61 verses →
Matthew 22:37 Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Mark 14:29 Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I never will.”
- ἀναγγέλλω anangéllōI announce, make known, reporttranslated this way 3 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G312Verb · Translated: told 3, disclosing 2, reported 2, declaring 2Full study and all 14 verses →
John 16:13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.
Acts 20:20 I did not shrink back from declaring anything that was helpful to you as I taught you publicly and from house to house,
- ποιέω poiéōI do, maketranslated this way 2 times of its 544 uses · Strong’s G4160Verb · Translated: do 50, done 44, doing 40, made 34Full study and all 494 verses →
John 19:7 “We have a law,” answered the Jews, “and according to that law He must die, because He declared Himself to be the Son of God.”
John 19:12 From then on, Pilate tried to release Him, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who declares himself a king is defying Caesar.”
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.