Word study

Dismiss

1 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • שָׁלַח shâlachsendtranslated this way 4 times of its 829 uses · Strong’s H7971Verb  ·  Translated: sent 334, send 126, go 43, sending 19

    Judges 2:6 After Joshua had dismissed the people, the Israelites went out to take possession of the land, each to his own inheritance.

    2 Samuel 3:21 Then Abner said to David, “Let me go at once, and I will gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may rule over all that your heart desires.” So David dismissed Abner, and he went in peace.

    Full study and all 783 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἀπολύω apolýōI release, let go, send away, divorcetranslated this way 11 times of its 66 uses · Strong’s G630Verb  ·  Translated: release 20, released 8, dismissed 7, divorces 6

    Matthew 14:15 When evening came, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is already late. Dismiss the crowds so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

    Mark 6:36 Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

    Full study and all 61 verses →
  • ἀφίημι aphíēmiI send away, release, remit, forgive, permittranslated this way 2 times of its 142 uses · Strong’s G863Verb  ·  Translated: left 36, forgive 22, forgiven 22, let 12

    Matthew 13:36 Then Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house. His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”

    Mark 4:36 After they had dismissed the crowd, they took Jesus with them, since He was already in the boat. And there were other boats with Him.

    Full study and all 130 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.