Word study
Free
9 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: free, freed, frees, freeing. 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 “free” 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)
- חׇפְשִׁי chophshîfreetranslated this way 10 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s H2670Adjective · Translated: free 9, taxation 1, freed 1, forsaken 1Full study and all 13 verses →
Exodus 21:2 If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.
Deuteronomy 15:12 If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.
- יָצָא yâtsâgo or come outtranslated this way 8 times of its 1,035 uses · Strong’s H3318Verb · Translated: brought 108, went 103, go 82, came 78Full study and all 975 verses →
Exodus 21:4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
Exodus 21:7 And if a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as the menservants do.
- שָׁלַח shâlachsendtranslated this way 7 times of its 829 uses · Strong’s H7971Verb · Translated: sent 334, send 126, go 43, sending 19Full study and all 783 verses →
Genesis 49:21 Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.
- עָזַב âzableave, forsake, loosetranslated this way 5 times of its 214 uses · Strong’s H5800Verb · Translated: forsaken 47, forsake 36, leave 23, abandoned 22Full study and all 206 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:36 For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.
1 Kings 14:10 Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is gone!
- לֹא lônottranslated this way 5 times of its 4,657 uses · Strong’s H3808Adverb · Translated: no 309, not 269, never 218, will not 156Full study and all 3,775 verses →
- נָקִי nâqîclean, free from, exempttranslated this way 3 times of its 43 uses · Strong’s H5355Adjective · Translated: innocent 28, released 2, free 2, guilt of shedding innocent 2Full study and all 42 verses →
Genesis 44:10 “As you say,” replied the steward. “But only the one who is found with the cup will be my slave, and the rest of you shall be free of blame.”
Numbers 32:22 then when the land is subdued before the LORD, you may return and be free of obligation to the LORD and to Israel. And this land will belong to you as a possession before the LORD.
- פָּתַח pâthachopentranslated this way 3 times of its 141 uses · Strong’s H6605Verb · Translated: open 50, opened 40, engrave 4, opens 3Full study and all 133 verses →
Psalm 105:20 The king sent and released him; the ruler of peoples set him free.
Isaiah 51:14 The captive will soon be freed; he will not die in the dungeon, and his bread will not be lacking.
- פָּצָה pâtsâhpart, opentranslated this way 3 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H6475Verb · Translated: open 4, opened 3, opens 2, set me free 2Full study and all 15 verses →
Psalm 144:7 Reach down from on high; set me free and rescue me from the deep waters, from the grasp of foreigners,
Psalm 144:10 to Him who gives victory to kings, who frees His servant David from the deadly sword.
- נָצַל nâtsalstrip, plundertranslated this way 2 times of its 205 uses · Strong’s H5337Verb · Translated: deliver 75, delivered 34, rescue 30, rescued 9Full study and all 191 verses →
Proverbs 6:3 then do this, my son, to free yourself, for you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go, humble yourself, and press your plea with your neighbor.
Proverbs 6:5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐλεύθερος eleútherosfree, delivered from obligationtranslated this way 20 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s G1658Adjective · Translated: free 17, free of obligation 2, freedom 2, exempt 1Full study and all 23 verses →
John 8:33 “We are Abraham’s descendants,” they answered. “We have never been slaves to anyone. How can You say we will be set free?”
Romans 6:20 For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness.
- ἐλευθερόω eleutheróōI free, set free, liberatetranslated this way 7 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G1659Verb · Translated: set free 3, set you free 1, sets you free 1, free 1Full study and all 7 verses →
John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Romans 6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
- ἀφιλάργυρος aphilárgyrosnot loving money, not avaricioustranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G866Adjective · Translated: free of the love of money 1, free from the love of money 1Full study and all 2 verses →
1 Timothy 3:3 not dependent on wine, not violent but gentle, peaceable, and free of the love of money.
Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
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.