Word study

Freely

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “freely”. 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 “freely” 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)

  • נְדָבָה nedâbâhvoluntariness, freewill-offeringtranslated this way 3 times of its 25 uses · Strong’s H5071Noun  ·  Translated: freewill offering 10, freewill offerings 9, freely 3, willingly 1

    Deuteronomy 23:23 Be careful to follow through on what comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed to the LORD your God with your own mouth.

    Psalm 54:6 Freely I will sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good.

    Full study and all 25 verses →
  • אָכַל âkaleattranslated this way 2 times of its 784 uses · Strong’s H398Verb  ·  Translated: eat 341, ate 64, eaten 63, consumed 39

    Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded him, “You may eat freely from every tree of the garden,

    Full study and all 696 verses →
  • שָׁכַר shâkarbe, or beocme, drunk, drunkentranslated this way 2 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7937Verb  ·  Translated: drunk 7, get drunk 2

    Genesis 43:34 When the portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than any of the others. So they feasted and drank freely with Joseph.

    Song of Solomon 5:1 I have come to my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, and drink; drink freely, O beloved.

    Full study and all 19 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • δωρεάν dōreánas a free gift, without payment, freelytranslated this way 5 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G1432Adverb  ·  Translated: freely 5, without reason 1, free of charge 1, nothing 1

    Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

    Romans 3:24 and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

    Full study and all 8 verses →
  • χαρίζομαι charízomaiI show favor to, forgivetranslated this way 3 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s G5483Verb  ·  Translated: forgave 4, forgiven 3, forgive 3, gave 2

    Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?

    1 Corinthians 2:12 We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.

    Full study and all 19 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.