Word study
Drip
5 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: drip, dripping, dripped, drips. 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 “drip” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- נָטַף nâṭaphdrop, driptranslated this way 6 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H5197Verb · Translated: preach 7, drip 4, poured 3Full study and all 14 verses →
Proverbs 5:3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
Song of Solomon 4:11 Your lips, my bride, drip sweetness like the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments is like the aroma of Lebanon.
- רָעַף râaphtrickle, driptranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7491Verb · Translated: overflow 2, shower 1, dripped 1, Drip 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Proverbs 3:20 By His knowledge the watery depths were broken open, and the clouds dripped with dew.
Isaiah 45:8 Drip down, O heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open up that salvation may sprout and righteousness spring up with it; I, the LORD, have created it.
- דֶּלֶף delepha droppingtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H1812Noun · Translated: dripping 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Proverbs 19:13 A foolish son is his father’s ruin, and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.
Proverbs 27:15 A constant dripping on a rainy day and a contentious woman are alike —
- עָרַף âraphdrip, droptranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H6201Verb · Translated: fall 1, drip 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Deuteronomy 33:28 So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew.
- דָּשֵׁן dâshênbe fat, grow fattranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s H1878Verb · Translated: prosper 3Full study and all 11 verses →
Isaiah 34:6 The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat — with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
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.