Word study

Entice

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • פָּתָה pâthâhbe spacious, wide, opentranslated this way 15 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s H6601Verb  ·  Translated: entice 8, enticed 5, deceived 4, deceive 2

    Deuteronomy 11:16 But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods,

    Judges 14:15 So on the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”

    Full study and all 26 verses →
  • נָדַח nâdachimpel, thrust, banishtranslated this way 1 time of its 54 uses · Strong’s H5080Verb  ·  Translated: banished 13, exiles 5, driven 4, banish 4

    Deuteronomy 4:19 When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars— all the host of heaven— do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

    Full study and all 53 verses →
  • סוּת sûthincite, allure, instigatetranslated this way 1 time of its 18 uses · Strong’s H5496Verb  ·  Translated: urged 3, stirred 2, incited 2, mislead 2

    Deuteronomy 13:6 If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (which neither you nor your fathers have known,

    Full study and all 18 verses →
  • נָטָה nâṭâhstretch out, spread out, extend, incline, bendtranslated this way 1 time of its 215 uses · Strong’s H5186Verb  ·  Translated: incline 24, stretch 23, stretched 21, outstretched 19

    Proverbs 7:21 With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.

    Full study and all 207 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • δελεάζω deleázōI allure, entice by a baittranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G1185Verb  ·  Translated: enticed 1, seduce 1, entice 1

    James 1:14 But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.

    2 Peter 2:18 With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

    Full study and all 3 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.