Word study

Firmly

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “firmly”. 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 “firmly” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • כּוּן kûnbe firmtranslated this way 4 times of its 213 uses · Strong’s H3559Verb  ·  Translated: established 43, prepared 23, prepare 16, establish 15

    1 Kings 2:46 Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down, and he died. Thus the kingdom was firmly established in the hand of Solomon.

    1 Chronicles 16:30 tremble before Him, all the earth. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

    Full study and all 204 verses →
  • חָזַק châzaqbe or grow firm, strong, strengthentranslated this way 3 times of its 290 uses · Strong’s H2388Verb  ·  Translated: strong 37, made repairs 22, strengthened 16, repaired 15

    2 Kings 14:5 As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, Amaziah executed the servants who had murdered his father the king.

    2 Chronicles 25:3 As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, Amaziah executed the servants who had murdered his father the king.

    Full study and all 264 verses →
  • נָטַע nâṭastrike, fix, planttranslated this way 2 times of its 57 uses · Strong’s H5193Verb  ·  Translated: plant 28, planted 15, plants 2, establish 2

    Ecclesiastes 12:11 The words of the wise are like goads, and the anthologies of the masters are like firmly embedded nails driven by a single Shepherd.

    Amos 9:15 I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

    Full study and all 55 verses →
  • כְּפַת kephathbindtranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H3729Verb  ·  Translated: firmly bound 2, tie 1, tied 1

    Daniel 3:23 And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, firmly bound, fell into the blazing fiery furnace.

    Daniel 3:24 Suddenly King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and asked his advisers, “Did we not throw three men, firmly bound, into the fire?” “Certainly, O king,” they replied.

    Full study and all 4 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κατέχω katéchōI hold fast, bind, restraintranslated this way 2 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s G2722Verb  ·  Translated: hold firmly 2, hold 2

    1 Corinthians 15:2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

    Hebrews 3:6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.

    Full study and all 17 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.