Word study
Drop
7 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: dropped, drops, drop, dropping. 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 “drop” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׁלַךְ shâlakthrow, fling, casttranslated this way 5 times of its 126 uses · Strong’s H7993Verb · Translated: cast 27, threw 20, throw 16, thrown 10Full study and all 121 verses →
Judges 9:53 But a woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull.
2 Samuel 11:21 Who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”
- נָפַל nâphalfall, lietranslated this way 1 time of its 432 uses · Strong’s H5307Verb · Translated: fall 104, fell 77, fallen 54, falls 21Full study and all 403 verses →
Numbers 35:23 or without looking drops a heavy stone that kills him, but he was not an enemy and did not intend to harm him,
- נָטָף nâṭâphdroptranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H5198Noun · Translated: gum resin 1, drops 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Job 36:27 For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist,
- אֶגֶל egeldroptranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H96Noun · Translated: drops 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Job 38:28 Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew?
- נָשַׁל nâshalslip or drop offtranslated this way 1 time of its 7 uses · Strong’s H5394Verb · Translated: Take 2, drives 1, drive 1, blade flies 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Deuteronomy 28:40 You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will never anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off.
- מַר mardroptranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H4752Noun · Translated: like a drop 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Isaiah 40:15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are considered a speck of dust on the scales; He lifts up the islands like fine dust.
- צָמַת tsâmathput an end to, exterminatetranslated this way 1 time of its 15 uses · Strong’s H6789Verb · Translated: destroy 5, destroyed 3Full study and all 14 verses →
Lamentations 3:53 They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.
Greek words (New Testament)
- θρόμβος thrómbosa clot, large droptranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2361Noun · Translated: drops 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Luke 22:44 And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
- πίπτω píptōI fall, fall undertranslated this way 1 time of its 90 uses · Strong’s G4098Verb · Translated: fell 46, fall 17, fallen 8, falls 7Full study and all 86 verses →
Luke 16:17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.
- καταπίπτω katapíptōI fall downtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s G2667Verb · Translated: fell 2, drop 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Acts 28:6 The islanders were expecting him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
- ῥίπτω rhíptōI throw, cast, tosstranslated this way 1 time of its 7 uses · Strong’s G4496Verb · Translated: threw 3, helpless 1, laid 1, thrown 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Acts 27:29 Fearing that we would run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daybreak.
- βάλλω bállōI cast, throw, rush, put, place, droptranslated this way 1 time of its 120 uses · Strong’s G906Verb · Translated: thrown 26, put 16, throw 11, cast 10Full study and all 106 verses →
Revelation 6:13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind.
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.