Word study

Ensnare

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • יָקֹשׁ yâqôshlay a bait or luretranslated this way 4 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H3369Verb  ·  Translated: ensnared 4, fowler 1, laid 1, trapped 1

    Deuteronomy 7:25 You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the LORD your God.

    Ecclesiastes 9:12 For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.

    Full study and all 8 verses →
  • צוּד tsûdhunttranslated this way 4 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H6679Verb  ·  Translated: hunt 7, hunted 2, ensnare 2

    Ezekiel 13:18 and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their wrists and make veils for the heads of people of every height, in order to ensnare their souls. Will you ensnare the souls of My people but preserve your own?

    Ezekiel 13:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: See, I am against the magic charms with which you ensnare souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms. So I will free the souls you have ensnared like birds.

    Full study and all 15 verses →
  • לָכַד lâkadcapture, seize, take (by lot)translated this way 3 times of its 120 uses · Strong’s H3920Verb  ·  Translated: captured 62, capture 12, selected 9, caught 8

    Psalm 35:8 May ruin befall them by surprise; may the net they hid ensnare them; may they fall into the hazard they created.

    Proverbs 6:2 if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth,

    Full study and all 112 verses →
  • נָקַשׁ nâqashknock, striketranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H5367Verb  ·  Translated: ensnared 2, set a trap 1, lay snares 1, seize 1

    Deuteronomy 12:30 be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.”

    Psalm 9:16 The LORD is known by the justice He brings; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Higgaion Selah

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • קוֹשׁ qôshlay bait or luretranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H6983Verb  ·  Translated: ensnare 1

    Isaiah 29:21 those who indict a man with a word, who ensnare the mediator at the gate, and who with false charges deprive the innocent of justice.

    Full study and its 1 verse →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • παγίς pagísa snare, traptranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s G3803Noun  ·  Translated: snare 4, become ensnared 1

    1 Timothy 6:9 Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction.

    Full study and all 5 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.