Word study
Disease
10 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: disease, diseases, diseased. 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 “disease” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- צָרַעַת tsâraathleprosytranslated this way 19 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s H6883Noun · Translated: skin disease 8, mildew 7, leprosy 4, disease 3Full study and all 32 verses →
Leviticus 13:3 The priest is to examine the infection on his skin, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin, it is a skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.
Deuteronomy 24:8 In cases of infectious skin diseases, be careful to diligently follow everything the Levitical priests instruct you. Be careful to do as I have commanded them.
- צָרַע tsârabe struck with leprosy, leproustranslated this way 5 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H6879Verb · Translated: leprous 5, skin disease 3, leper 3, leprosy 3Full study and all 17 verses →
Leviticus 13:44 the man is diseased; he is unclean. The priest must pronounce him unclean because of the infection on his head.
Numbers 5:2 “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body.
- נֶגַע negastroke, plague, mark, plague-spottranslated this way 4 times of its 64 uses · Strong’s H5061Noun · Translated: infection 12, mildew 12, contaminated 6, plague 4Full study and all 56 verses →
Leviticus 13:2 “When someone has a swelling or rash or bright spot on his skin that may be an infectious skin disease, he must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest.
Psalm 38:11 My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.
- חֳלִי chŏlîsicknesstranslated this way 3 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H2483Noun · Translated: sickness 7, illness 5, disease 3Full study and all 21 verses →
2 Chronicles 16:12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his illness he did not seek the LORD, but only the physicians.
2 Chronicles 21:18 After all this, the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels.
- מַחֲלֶה machălehsickness, diseasetranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H4245Noun · Translated: sickness 4, diseases 1, disease 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Exodus 15:26 saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”
2 Chronicles 21:15 And day after day you yourself will suffer from a severe illness, a disease of your bowels, until it causes your bowels to come out.’”
- מַדְוֶה madvehsicknesstranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4064Noun · Translated: diseases 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Deuteronomy 7:15 And the LORD will remove from you all sickness. He will not lay upon you any of the terrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but He will inflict them on all who hate you.
Deuteronomy 28:60 He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you.
- תַּחֲלוּא tachălûmaladytranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H8463Noun · Translated: diseases 2, sicknesses 1, pain 1, ravaged 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Psalm 103:3 He who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases,
Jeremiah 16:4 “They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”
- שַׁחֶפֶת shachephethconsumptiontranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H7829Noun · Translated: wasting disease 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Leviticus 26:16 then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.
Deuteronomy 28:22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.
- רָזוֹן râzônleanness, wasting, scantnesstranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H7332Noun · Translated: wasting disease 2, short 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Psalm 106:15 So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.
Isaiah 10:16 Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame.
- חָלָה châlâhbe weak, sicktranslated this way 2 times of its 75 uses · Strong’s H2470Verb · Translated: ill 8, sick 8, grievous 5, sought 4Full study and all 73 verses →
1 Kings 15:23 Now the rest of the acts of Asa, along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? In his old age, however, he became diseased in his feet.
Isaiah 17:11 though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout — yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.
Greek words (New Testament)
- νόσος nósosa disease, maladytranslated this way 11 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G3554Noun · Translated: diseases 8, disease 3Full study and all 11 verses →
Matthew 4:23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.
Mark 1:34 And He healed many who were ill with various diseases and drove out many demons. But He would not allow the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.
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.
What the Bible says about disease: passages by topic →
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.