Word study
Flight
7 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “flight”. 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 “flight” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רָדַף râdaphpursue, chase, persecutetranslated this way 1 time of its 142 uses · Strong’s H7291Verb · Translated: pursued 36, pursue 35, pursues 9, pursuers 9Full study and all 135 verses →
Leviticus 26:36 As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.
- נוּס nûsflee, escapetranslated this way 1 time of its 157 uses · Strong’s H5127Verb · Translated: fled 65, flee 47, ran 5, run 5Full study and all 141 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- בָּרַח bârachgo through, fleetranslated this way 1 time of its 64 uses · Strong’s H1272Verb · Translated: fled 30, flee 9, ran away 3, running away 2Full study and all 63 verses →
1 Chronicles 12:15 These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks, and they put to flight all those in the valleys, both to the east and to the west.
- אָבַר âbarflytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H82Verb · Translated: take flight 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Job 39:26 Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south?
- שִׁית shîthput, settranslated this way 1 time of its 80 uses · Strong’s H7896Verb · Translated: set 13, make 7, put 6, placed 5Full study and all 78 verses →
Psalm 21:12 For You will put them to flight when Your bow is trained upon them.
- מָנוֹס mânôsflight.translated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H4498Noun · Translated: refuge 4, escape 2, Flight 1, flee 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Jeremiah 25:35 Flight will evade the shepherds, and escape will elude the leaders of the flock.
- יְעָף yeâphweariness, faintnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H3288Noun · Translated: swift flight 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Daniel 9:21 while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
Greek words (New Testament)
- φυγή phygḗflighttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G5437Noun · Translated: flight 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Matthew 24:20 Pray that your flight will not occur in the winter or on the Sabbath.
- πέτομαι pétomaiI flytranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s G4072Verb · Translated: flying 3, flight 1, fly 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Revelation 4:7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight.
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.