Word study

Foreign

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נֵכָר nêkârthat which is foreign, foreignnesstranslated this way 17 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H5236Noun  ·  Translated: foreign 15, foreigner 1, foreigners 1, worthless foreign 1

    Genesis 35:2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.

    Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • נׇכְרִי nokrîforeign, alientranslated this way 14 times of its 42 uses · Strong’s H5237Adjective  ·  Translated: foreign 14, foreigner 13, foreigners 4, stranger 4

    Exodus 2:22 And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

    1 Kings 11:1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh — women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

    Full study and all 42 verses →
  • גֵּר gêrsojournertranslated this way 12 times of its 92 uses · Strong’s H1616Noun  ·  Translated: foreigner 51, foreigners 15, foreign resident 10, foreigner residing 2

    Exodus 22:21 You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

    Leviticus 22:18 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any foreign resident who presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, whether to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering,

    Full study and all 83 verses →
  • זוּר zûrbe a strangertranslated this way 6 times of its 76 uses · Strong’s H2114Adjective  ·  Translated: foreigners 13, strangers 12, outsider 9, stranger 8

    Deuteronomy 32:16 They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations.

    2 Kings 19:24 I have dug wells and drunk foreign waters. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the streams of Egypt.”

    Full study and all 75 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἀλλότριος allótriosbelonging to another person, foreigntranslated this way 2 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s G245Adjective  ·  Translated: others 4, foreign 2

    Hebrews 11:9 By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

    Hebrews 11:34 quenched the raging fire, and escaped the edge of the sword; who gained strength from weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.

    Full study and all 13 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.