Word study
Dig
7 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: dig, digs, digging. 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 “dig” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- חָתַר châthardig, rowtranslated this way 5 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H2864Verb · Translated: dig 5, dug 2, rowed hard 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Job 24:16 In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light.
Ezekiel 8:8 “Son of man,” He told me, “dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall and discovered a doorway.
- כָּרָה kârâhdigtranslated this way 3 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H3738Verb · Translated: dug 8, digs 3, hollowed 1, cut 1Full study and all 14 verses →
Exodus 21:33 If a man opens or digs a pit and fails to cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,
Proverbs 16:27 A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.
- חָפַר châphardig, search fortranslated this way 2 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H2658Verb · Translated: dug 11, search 2, spy 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Deuteronomy 23:13 And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement.
Ecclesiastes 10:8 He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake.
- חָצַב châtsabhew, hew out, cleavetranslated this way 1 time of its 24 uses · Strong’s H2672Verb · Translated: stonecutters 7, dug 4Full study and all 22 verses →
Deuteronomy 6:11 with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant— and when you eat and are satisfied,
- עָשָׂה âsâhdo, maketranslated this way 1 time of its 2,478 uses · Strong’s H6213Verb · Translated: done 292, made 265, make 143, did 112Full study and all 2,206 verses →
- עָמַק âmaqbe deeptranslated this way 1 time of its 9 uses · Strong’s H6009Verb · Translated: deep 3, low 2, depths 1, dig deep 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Isaiah 29:15 Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
- יָתֵד yâthêdpeg, pintranslated this way 1 time of its 22 uses · Strong’s H3489Noun · Translated: tent pegs 9, peg 4, tent peg 3, pin 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Deuteronomy 23:13 And you must have a digging tool in your equipment so that when you relieve yourself you can dig a hole and cover up your excrement.
Greek words (New Testament)
- σκάπτω skáptōI digtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4626Verb · Translated: dig 2, dug 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Luke 13:8 ‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone again this year, until I dig around it and fertilize it.
Luke 16:3 The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking away my position? I am too weak to dig and too ashamed to beg.
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.