Word study

Enlarge

6 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: enlarge, enlarges, enlarged. 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 “enlarge” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • רָחַב râchabbe, or grow, wide, largetranslated this way 8 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H7337Verb  ·  Translated: enlarges 4, enlarge 4, broaden 2

    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.

    Deuteronomy 19:8 And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised them,

    Full study and all 23 verses →
  • רָבָה râbâhbe, or become, much, many, greattranslated this way 2 times of its 219 uses · Strong’s H7235Verb  ·  Translated: multiply 39, multiplied 23, many 15, much 10

    1 Chronicles 4:10 And Jabez called out to the God of Israel, “If only You would bless me and enlarge my territory! May Your hand be with me and keep me from harm, so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted the request of Jabez.

    Isaiah 9:3 You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvest time, as men rejoice in dividing the plunder.

    Full study and all 207 verses →
  • יָסַף yâsaphaddtranslated this way 2 times of its 202 uses · Strong’s H3254Verb  ·  Translated: again 36, add 23, longer 20, severely 12

    Isaiah 26:15 You have enlarged the nation, O LORD; You have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for Yourself; You have extended all the borders of the land.

    Full study and all 198 verses →
  • קָרַע qârateartranslated this way 1 time of its 63 uses · Strong’s H7167Verb  ·  Translated: tore 25, torn 15, tear 11, away 3

    Jeremiah 4:30 And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.

    Full study and all 60 verses →
  • שָׁטַח shâṭachspread, spread abroadtranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7849Verb  ·  Translated: spread 2, scattered 1, enlarges 1, exposed 1

    Job 12:23 He makes nations great and destroys them; He enlarges nations, then disperses them.

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • הָרֶה hârehpregnanttranslated this way 1 time of its 16 uses · Strong’s H2030Adjective  ·  Translated: pregnant 7, conceive 2, pregnant women 2

    Jeremiah 20:17 because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged.

    Full study and all 16 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.