Word study

Drove

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: drove, droves. 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 “drove” 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 9 times of its 230 uses · Strong’s H3423Verb  ·  Translated: possess 72, drive 27, take possession 21, driven 12

    Numbers 21:32 After Moses had sent spies to Jazer, Israel captured its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there.

    Deuteronomy 2:12 The Horites used to live in Seir, but the descendants of Esau drove them out. They destroyed the Horites from before them and settled in their place, just as Israel did in the land that the LORD gave them as their possession.)

    Full study and all 204 verses →
  • גָּרַשׁ gârashdrive out, cast outtranslated this way 8 times of its 46 uses · Strong’s H1644Verb  ·  Translated: drive 14, drove 7, banished 4, driven 3

    Genesis 3:24 So He drove out the man and stationed cherubim on the east side of the Garden of Eden, along with a whirling sword of flame to guard the way to the tree of life.

    Exodus 2:17 And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.

    Full study and all 45 verses →
  • נָהַג nâhagdrive, conducttranslated this way 3 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H5090Verb  ·  Translated: led 4, drive 3, drove 2, driving 2

    Genesis 31:18 and he drove all his livestock before him, along with all the possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land in Canaan.

    1 Samuel 30:20 And he took all the flocks and herds, which his men drove ahead of the other livestock, calling out, “This is David’s plunder!”

    Full study and all 30 verses →
  • בָּרַח bârachgo through, fleetranslated this way 2 times of its 64 uses · Strong’s H1272Verb  ·  Translated: fled 30, flee 9, ran away 3, running away 2

    1 Chronicles 8:13 and Beriah and Shema (who were the heads of families living in Aijalon and who drove out the inhabitants of Gath).

    Nehemiah 13:28 Even one of the sons of Jehoiada son of Eliashib the high priest had become a son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I drove him away from me.

    Full study and all 63 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἐκβάλλω ekbállōI throw, cast, put out, banish, bring forth, producetranslated this way 8 times of its 81 uses · Strong’s G1544Verb  ·  Translated: drive 22, drove 8, threw 5, take 4

    Matthew 8:16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to Jesus, and He drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.

    Mark 1:12 At once the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness,

    Full study and all 75 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.