Word study

Encourage

2 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: encourage, encouraged, encouraging, encourages. 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 “encourage” 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)

  • חָזַק châzaqbe or grow firm, strong, strengthentranslated this way 6 times of its 290 uses · Strong’s H2388Verb  ·  Translated: strong 37, made repairs 22, strengthened 16, repaired 15

    Deuteronomy 1:38 Joshua son of Nun, who stands before you, will enter it. Encourage him, for he will enable Israel to inherit the land.

    2 Samuel 11:25 Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”

    Full study and all 264 verses →
  • דָבַר dâbarspeaktranslated this way 2 times of its 1,113 uses · Strong’s H1696Verb  ·  Translated: speak 209, said 157, spoken 142, spoke 110Full study and all 1,025 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • παρακαλέω parakaléōI summon, entreat, admonish, comforttranslated this way 24 times of its 106 uses · Strong’s G3870Verb  ·  Translated: urge 20, encourage 14, begged 13, urged 7

    Acts 11:23 When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.

    Romans 12:8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

    Full study and all 104 verses →
  • παράκλησις paráklēsisexhortation, entreaty, encouragement, comforttranslated this way 3 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s G3874Noun  ·  Translated: encouragement 10, comfort 9, exhortation 3, appeal 2

    Acts 15:31 When the people read it, they rejoiced at its encouraging message.

    Romans 12:8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

    Full study and all 28 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.