Word study
Flow
12 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: flowing, flow, flowed, flows. 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 “flow” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- זוּב zûbflow, gushtranslated this way 20 times of its 42 uses · Strong’s H2100Verb · Translated: flowing 18, discharge 7, man with the discharge 6, gushed 3Full study and all 41 verses →
Exodus 3:8 I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey— the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
Leviticus 20:24 But I have told you that you will inherit their land, since I will give it to you as an inheritance — a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the peoples.
- הָלַךְ hâlakgo, come, walktranslated this way 8 times of its 1,461 uses · Strong’s H1980Verb · Translated: go 338, went 173, walk 116, Come 84Full study and all 1,299 verses →
- יָצָא yâtsâgo or come outtranslated this way 7 times of its 1,035 uses · Strong’s H3318Verb · Translated: brought 108, went 103, go 82, came 78Full study and all 975 verses →
Genesis 2:10 Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters:
- בּוֹא bôcome in, come, go in, gotranslated this way 6 times of its 2,442 uses · Strong’s H935Verb · Translated: come 358, came 298, bring 209, brought 201Full study and all 2,217 verses →
- יָרַד yâradcome or go down, descendtranslated this way 6 times of its 372 uses · Strong’s H3381Verb · Translated: went 56, go 55, come 35, came 26Full study and all 341 verses →
Joshua 3:13 When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD — the Lord of all the earth — touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”
Psalm 78:16 He brought streams from the stone and made water flow down like rivers.
- נָזַל nâzalflow, trickle, drop, distiltranslated this way 5 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H5140Verb · Translated: flow 3, currents 2, pour 2, streams 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Numbers 24:7 Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will have abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.
Psalm 147:18 He sends forth His word and melts them; He unleashes His winds, and the waters flow.
- שׁוּב shûbturn back, returntranslated this way 2 times of its 1,007 uses · Strong’s H7725Verb · Translated: return 218, returned 105, restore 62, turn 56Full study and all 920 verses →
Exodus 14:26 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.”
Exodus 14:28 The waters flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen — the entire army of Pharaoh that had chased the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
- שָׁטַף shâṭaphoverflow, rinse or wash offtranslated this way 2 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H7857Verb · Translated: rinsed 3, torrents 3, overflowing 2, like a flood 2Full study and all 29 verses →
2 Chronicles 32:4 Many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they said.
Isaiah 66:12 For this is what the LORD says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flowing stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm, and bounced upon her knees.
- מוֹצָא môtsâplace or act of going forth, issue, export, source, springtranslated this way 2 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H4161Noun · Translated: exits 3, imported 2, utterance 2, flowing springs 2Full study and all 25 verses →
Psalm 107:35 He turns a desert into pools of water and a dry land into flowing springs.
Isaiah 41:18 I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs.
- עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 2 times of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb · Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35Full study and all 487 verses →
- יָבָל yâbâlwatercourse, streamtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H2988Noun · Translated: flow 1, flowing 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Isaiah 30:25 And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.
Isaiah 44:4 They will sprout among the grass like willows by flowing streams.
- מָקוֹר mâqôrspring, fountaintranslated this way 2 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H4726Noun · Translated: fountain 13, flow 1, source of her flow 1, source 1Full study and all 17 verses →
Leviticus 12:7 And the priest will present them before the LORD and make atonement for her; and she shall be ceremonially cleansed from her flow of blood. This is the law for a woman giving birth, whether to a male or to a female.
Leviticus 20:18 If a man lies with a menstruating woman and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from among their people.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐξέρχομαι exérchomaiI go out, come outtranslated this way 2 times of its 215 uses · Strong’s G1831Verb · Translated: went 56, came 26, left 23, come 23Full study and all 209 verses →
John 19:34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
Revelation 14:20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and the blood that flowed from it rose as high as the bridles of the horses for a distance of 1,600 stadia.
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.