Word study

Follow

16 Hebrew and 10 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: follow, followed, following, follows. 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 “follow” 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)

  • הָלַךְ hâlakgo, come, walktranslated this way 76 times of its 1,461 uses · Strong’s H1980Verb  ·  Translated: go 338, went 173, walk 116, Come 84

    Genesis 24:5 The servant asked him, “What if the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the land from which you came?”

    Exodus 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions.

    Full study and all 1,299 verses →
  • אַחַר acharbehindtranslated this way 40 times of its 556 uses · Strong’s H310Preposition  ·  Translated: after 123, behind 56, and after 22, after that 19

    Genesis 41:31 The abundance in the land will not be remembered, since the famine that follows it will be so severe.

    Leviticus 20:5 then I will set My face against that man and his family and cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech.

    Full study and all 533 verses →
  • עָשָׂה âsâhdo, maketranslated this way 34 times of its 2,478 uses · Strong’s H6213Verb  ·  Translated: done 292, made 265, make 143, did 112

    Exodus 18:23 If you follow this advice and God so directs you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people can go home in peace.”

    Exodus 23:24 You must not bow down to their gods or serve them or follow their practices. Instead, you are to demolish them and smash their sacred stones to pieces.

    Full study and all 2,206 verses →
  • בּוֹא bôcome in, come, go in, gotranslated this way 9 times of its 2,442 uses · Strong’s H935Verb  ·  Translated: come 358, came 298, bring 209, brought 201

    Exodus 14:23 And the Egyptians chased after them— all Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and horsemen— and followed them into the sea.

    Numbers 25:8 followed the Israelite into the tent, and drove the spear through both of them— through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted,

    Full study and all 2,217 verses →
  • יָצָא yâtsâgo or come outtranslated this way 5 times of its 1,035 uses · Strong’s H3318Verb  ·  Translated: brought 108, went 103, go 82, came 78

    Exodus 15:20 Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.

    Full study and all 975 verses →
  • עָלָה âlâhgo up, ascend, climbtranslated this way 5 times of its 873 uses · Strong’s H5927Verb  ·  Translated: go 118, went 107, brought 56, come 42

    Deuteronomy 1:22 Then all of you approached me and said, “Let us send men ahead of us to search out the land and bring us word of what route to follow and which cities to enter.”

    Judges 4:10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.

    Full study and all 807 verses →
  • רָדַף râdaphpursue, chase, persecutetranslated this way 4 times of its 142 uses · Strong’s H7291Verb  ·  Translated: pursued 36, pursue 35, pursues 9, pursuers 9

    Joshua 8:16 Then all the men of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they followed Joshua and were drawn away from the city.

    Judges 3:28 “Follow me,” he told them, “for the LORD has delivered your enemies the Moabites into your hand.” So they followed him down and seized the fords of the Jordan leading to Moab, and they did not allow anyone to cross over.

    Full study and all 135 verses →
  • הָיָה hâyâhfall out, come to pass, become, betranslated this way 4 times of its 2,848 uses · Strong’s H1961Verb  ·  Translated: will be 206, become 178, came 169, was 151

    Exodus 23:2 You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.

    Full study and all 2,573 verses →
  • זֶה zehthis, thattranslated this way 4 times of its 984 uses · Strong’s H2088Pronoun  ·  Translated: this 478, in this 42, these 39, of this 27

    Leviticus 11:4 But of those that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: The camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a divided hoof; it is unclean for you.

    Deuteronomy 14:7 But of those that chew the cud or have a completely divided hoof, you are not to eat the following: the camel, the rabbit, or the rock badger. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof. They are unclean for you,

    Full study and all 913 verses →
  • קוּם qûmarise, stand up, standtranslated this way 3 times of its 594 uses · Strong’s H6965Verb  ·  Translated: rise 68, got 61, set 44, Get 42

    Genesis 41:30 but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will devastate the land.

    Deuteronomy 29:22 Then the generation to come — your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land — will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it.

    Full study and all 570 verses →
  • רֶגֶל regelfoottranslated this way 3 times of its 213 uses · Strong’s H7272Noun  ·  Translated: feet 128, foot 45, legs 8, times 4

    Exodus 11:8 And all these officials of yours will come and bow before me, saying, ‘Go, you and all the people who follow you!’ After that, I will depart.” And hot with anger, Moses left Pharaoh’s presence.

    2 Samuel 15:16 Then the king set out, and his entire household followed him. But he left behind ten concubines to take care of the palace.

    Full study and all 203 verses →
  • זֹאת zôththistranslated this way 3 times of its 559 uses · Strong’s H2063Pronoun  ·  Translated: this 333, of this 33, in this 26, and this 15

    Genesis 45:17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Tell your brothers, ‘Do as follows: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan.

    Numbers 16:6 You, Korah, and all your followers are to do as follows: Take censers,

    Full study and all 534 verses →
  • אֵלֶּה êl-lehthesetranslated this way 3 times of its 693 uses · Strong’s H428Pronoun  ·  Translated: these 377, things 36, of these 28, this 25

    Leviticus 11:13 Additionally, you are to detest the following birds, and they must not be eaten because they are detestable: the eagle, the bearded vulture, the black vulture,

    Full study and all 655 verses →
  • אָמַר âmarutter, saytranslated this way 3 times of its 4,555 uses · Strong’s H559Verb  ·  Translated: said 1,531, says 576, say 352, replied 341Full study and all 3,827 verses →
  • דָּבַק dâbaqcling, cleave, keep closetranslated this way 2 times of its 54 uses · Strong’s H1692Verb  ·  Translated: cling 12, hold fast 6, overtook 4, clung 3Full study and all 52 verses →
  • תּוֹעֵבַה tôêbahabominationtranslated this way 2 times of its 116 uses · Strong’s H8441Noun  ·  Translated: abominations 52, detestable 30, abomination 14, detests 3Full study and all 111 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

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.