Word study
Friend
10 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: friends, friend. 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 “friend” 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)
- רֵעַ rêashouting, roartranslated this way 43 times of its 185 uses · Strong’s H7453Noun · Translated: neighbor 60, another 30, friend 26, neighbor's 22Full study and all 172 verses →
Genesis 38:12 After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah.
Exodus 32:27 He told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each of you men is to fasten his sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and slay his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”
- אָהַב âhablovetranslated this way 11 times of its 210 uses · Strong’s H157Verb · Translated: love 87, loved 36, loves 30, lovers 16Full study and all 197 verses →
1 Kings 5:1 Now when Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father’s place, he sent envoys to Solomon; for Hiram had always been a friend of David.
2 Chronicles 20:7 Our God, did You not drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham Your friend?
- יָדַע yâdaknowtranslated this way 5 times of its 914 uses · Strong’s H3045Verb · Translated: know 453, known 53, knows 48, knew 38Full study and all 863 verses →
2 Kings 10:11 So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his great men and close friends and priests, leaving him without a single survivor.
Job 19:14 My kinsmen have failed me, and my friends have forgotten me.
- רֵעֶה rêehfriendtranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H7463Noun · Translated: friend 3, adviser 1Full study and all 4 verses →
2 Samuel 15:37 So David’s friend Hushai arrived in Jerusalem just as Absalom was entering the city.
Proverbs 27:10 Do not forsake your friend or your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity; better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away.
- אַלּוּף allûphtametranslated this way 3 times of its 31 uses · Strong’s H441Noun · Translated: chiefs 18, companion 2Full study and all 25 verses →
Proverbs 16:28 A perverse man spreads dissension, and a gossip divides close friends.
Jeremiah 3:4 Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth.
- חֲבַר chăbarfellow, comradetranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H2269Noun · Translated: friends 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Daniel 2:13 So the decree went out that the wise men were to be executed, and men went to look for Daniel and his friends to execute them.
Daniel 2:17 Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
- חָבֵר châbêrunited, associate, companiontranslated this way 2 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H2270Noun · Translated: companions 4, associated 3, companion 2, united 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Psalm 119:63 I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts.
Isaiah 1:23 Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.
- רֵעָה rêâhcompanion, attendanttranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H7464Noun · Translated: friends 2, companions 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Judges 11:37 She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander for two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.”
Judges 11:38 “Go,” he said. And he sent her away for two months. So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity upon the mountains.
- מֵרֵעַ mêrêafriend, companiontranslated this way 2 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H4828Noun · Translated: friends 2, adviser 1, men to accompany 1, men who accompanied 1Full study and all 6 verses →
2 Samuel 3:8 Abner was furious over Ish-bosheth’s accusation. “Am I the head of a dog that belongs to Judah?” he asked. “All this time I have been loyal to the house of your father Saul, to his brothers, and to his friends. I have not delivered you into the hand of David, but now you accuse me of wrongdoing with this woman!
Proverbs 19:7 All the brothers of a poor man hate him — how much more do his friends avoid him! He may pursue them with pleading, but they are nowhere to be found.
- אֱנוֹשׁ ĕnôshman, mankindtranslated this way 2 times of its 470 uses · Strong’s H582Noun · Translated: men 368, man 25, people 5, husbands 4Full study and all 447 verses →
Jeremiah 20:10 For I have heard the whispering of many: “Terror is on every side! Report him; let us report him!” All my trusted friends watch for my fall: “Perhaps he will be deceived so that we may prevail against him and take our vengeance upon him.”
Jeremiah 38:22 All the women who remain in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and those women will say: ‘They misled you and overcame you — those trusted friends of yours. Your feet sank into the mire, and they deserted you.’
Greek words (New Testament)
- φίλος phílosfriendly, a friendtranslated this way 28 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s G5384Adjective · Translated: friends 17, friend 11, friendship 1Full study and all 27 verses →
Matthew 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.”
Luke 7:6 So Jesus went with them. But when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends with the message: “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy to have You come under my roof.
- ἑταῖρος hetaîrosa companion, comradetranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G2083Noun · Translated: Friend 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Matthew 20:13 But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Did you not agree with me on one denarius?
Matthew 22:12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man was speechless.
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.