Word study
Fate
11 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “fate”. 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 “fate” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מִקְרֶה miqrehaccident, chance, fortunetranslated this way 4 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H4745Noun · Translated: fate 4, come 1, chance 1, Something has happened 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Ecclesiastes 2:14 The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.
Ecclesiastes 2:15 So I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will also befall me. What then have I gained by being wise?” And I said to myself that this too is futile.
- פְּקֻדָּה pequddâhoversight, mustering, visitation, storetranslated this way 1 time of its 30 uses · Strong’s H6486Noun · Translated: punishment 8, oversight 2Full study and all 29 verses →
Numbers 16:29 If these men die a natural death, or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me.
- אַחֲרִית achărîthafter-part, endtranslated this way 1 time of its 61 uses · Strong’s H319Noun · Translated: end 21, future 6, latter 5, come 4Full study and all 60 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:29 If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.
- כֹּל kôlthe whole, alltranslated this way 1 time of its 5,107 uses · Strong’s H3605Noun · Translated: all 1,589, and all 471, whole 223, every 196Full study and all 4,112 verses →
- רַע rabad, eviltranslated this way 1 time of its 651 uses · Strong’s H7451Adjective · Translated: evil 263, disaster 72, harm 38, wicked 31Full study and all 615 verses →
Esther 7:7 In his fury, the king arose from drinking his wine and went to the palace garden, while Haman stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life, for he realized that the king was planning a terrible fate for him.
- עַשְׁתּוּת ashtûththoughttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H6248Noun · Translated: fate 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Job 12:5 The one at ease scorns misfortune as the fate of those whose feet are slipping.
- יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 1 time of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun · Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72Full study and all 1,744 verses →
- דֶּרֶךְ derekway, road, distance, journey, mannertranslated this way 1 time of its 653 uses · Strong’s H1870Noun · Translated: way 204, ways 166, road 54, journey 35Full study and all 595 verses →
Psalm 49:13 This is the fate of the foolish and their followers who endorse their sayings. Selah
- אֹרַח ôrachway, pathtranslated this way 1 time of its 56 uses · Strong’s H734Noun · Translated: path 17, paths 15, way 5, ways 5Full study and all 56 verses →
Proverbs 1:19 Such is the fate of all who are greedy, whose unjust gain takes the lives of its possessors.
- אֵל êlmotion totranslated this way 1 time of its 4,199 uses · Strong’s H413Preposition · Translated: to 1,941, to me 285, to you 149, to him 137Full study and all 3,455 verses →
- אֲשֶׁר ăsherparticle of relationtranslated this way 1 time of its 3,225 uses · Strong’s H834Pronoun · Translated: that 886, who 451, as 247, which 160Full study and all 2,844 verses →
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.