Word study
Excel
4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: excel, excelling, excelled. 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 “excel” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- יֶתֶר yetherremainder, excellence, excesstranslated this way 2 times of its 97 uses · Strong’s H3499Noun · Translated: rest 64, remnant 6, bowstrings 3, left 3Full study and all 93 verses →
Genesis 49:3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power.
- יָתַר yâtharremain overtranslated this way 1 time of its 106 uses · Strong’s H3498Verb · Translated: left 24, rest 12, remaining 11, remainder 8Full study and all 100 verses →
Genesis 49:4 Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.
- תַּחָרָה tachârâhvie with a rivaltranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8474Verb · Translated: compete 1, excel 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Jeremiah 22:15 Does it make you a king to excel in cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He administered justice and righteousness, and so it went well with him.
- עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 1 time of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb · Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35Full study and all 487 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- περισσεύω perisseúōI exceed, am left overtranslated this way 5 times of its 37 uses · Strong’s G4052Verb · Translated: left 5, abound 5, excel 5, abundance 3Full study and all 33 verses →
1 Corinthians 14:12 It is the same with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, strive to excel in gifts that build up the church.
2 Corinthians 8:7 But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love we inspired in you — see that you also excel in this grace of giving.
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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.