Word study
Drive
7 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: drive, driving, drives. 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 “drive” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- יָרַשׁ yârashtake possession of, inherit, dispossesstranslated this way 31 times of its 230 uses · Strong’s H3423Verb · Translated: possess 72, drive 27, take possession 21, driven 12Full study and all 204 verses →
Exodus 34:24 For I will drive out the nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God.
Numbers 33:52 you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
- גָּרַשׁ gârashdrive out, cast outtranslated this way 17 times of its 46 uses · Strong’s H1644Verb · Translated: drive 14, drove 7, banished 4, driven 3Full study and all 45 verses →
Exodus 6:1 But the LORD said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for because of My mighty hand he will let the people go; because of My strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”
Numbers 22:6 So please come now and put a curse on this people, because they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I may be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land; for I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed.”
- נָהַג nâhagdrive, conducttranslated this way 6 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H5090Verb · Translated: led 4, drive 3, drove 2, driving 2Full study and all 30 verses →
Exodus 14:25 He caused their chariot wheels to wobble, so that they had difficulty driving. “Let us flee from the Israelites,” said the Egyptians, “for the LORD is fighting for them against Egypt!”
Deuteronomy 4:27 Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- רָחַק râchaqbe, or become, far, distanttranslated this way 3 times of its 57 uses · Strong’s H7368Verb · Translated: far 19, far away 6, removed 3, remove 3Full study and all 56 verses →
Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
Ezekiel 8:6 “Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing — the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing — to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”
- שָׁלַח shâlachsendtranslated this way 3 times of its 829 uses · Strong’s H7971Verb · Translated: sent 334, send 126, go 43, sending 19Full study and all 783 verses →
Leviticus 18:24 Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves.
Leviticus 20:23 You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them.
- נָשַׁל nâshalslip or drop offtranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H5394Verb · Translated: Take 2, drives 1, drive 1, blade flies 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations— the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—
Deuteronomy 7:22 The LORD your God will drive out these nations before you little by little. You will not be enabled to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals would multiply around you.
- נָדַח nâdachimpel, thrust, banishtranslated this way 2 times of its 54 uses · Strong’s H5080Verb · Translated: banished 13, exiles 5, driven 4, banish 4Full study and all 53 verses →
2 Chronicles 13:9 But did you not drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And did you not make priests for yourselves as do the peoples of other lands? Now whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of things that are not gods.
Psalm 5:10 Declare them guilty, O God; let them fall by their own devices. Drive them out for their many transgressions, for they have rebelled against You.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐκβάλλω ekbállōI throw, cast, put out, banish, bring forth, producetranslated this way 32 times of its 81 uses · Strong’s G1544Verb · Translated: drive 22, drove 8, threw 5, take 4Full study and all 75 verses →
Matthew 7:22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’
Mark 1:39 So He went throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
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.