Word study
Excess
4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “excess”. 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 “excess” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עֲדַף ădaphremain over, be in excesstranslated this way 4 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H5736Verb · Translated: excess 4, remains 2, left 1, balance 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Exodus 16:18 When they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no shortfall. Each one gathered as much as he needed to eat.
Numbers 3:48 Give the money to Aaron and his sons as the redemption price for the excess among the Israelites.”
- תַּרְבִּית tarbîthincrement, interest, usurytranslated this way 3 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H8636Noun · Translated: excess interest 3, usury 2, profit 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Ezekiel 18:8 He does not engage in usury or take excess interest, but he withholds his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between men.
Ezekiel 18:13 He engages in usury and takes excess interest. Will this son live? He will not! Since he has committed all these abominations, he will surely die; his blood will be on his own head.
- אֹכֶל ôkelfoodtranslated this way 2 times of its 41 uses · Strong’s H400Noun · Translated: food 33, excess food 2Full study and all 38 verses →
Genesis 41:35 Under the authority of Pharaoh, let them collect all the excess food from these good years, that they may come and lay up the grain to be preserved as food in the cities.
Genesis 41:48 During those seven years, Joseph collected all the excess food in the land of Egypt and stored it in the cities. In every city he laid up the food from the fields around it.
- יֶתֶר yetherremainder, excellence, excesstranslated this way 1 time of its 97 uses · Strong’s H3499Noun · Translated: rest 64, remnant 6, bowstrings 3, left 3Full study and all 93 verses →
Job 22:20 ‘Surely our foes are destroyed, and fire has consumed their excess.’
Greek words (New Testament)
- πλεονάζω pleonázōI abound, increasetranslated this way 1 time of its 9 uses · Strong’s G4121Verb · Translated: increase 2Full study and all 8 verses →
2 Corinthians 8:15 As it is written: “He who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no shortfall.”
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.