Word study
Gloat
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: gloat, gloating, gloats. 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 “gloat” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׂמַח sâmachrejoice, be gladtranslated this way 6 times of its 152 uses · Strong’s H8055Verb · Translated: rejoice 50, glad 27, rejoiced 20, gloat 6Full study and all 147 verses →
Psalm 35:19 Let not my enemies gloat over me without cause, nor those who hate me without reason wink in malice.
Proverbs 24:17 Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,
- רָאָה rââhseetranslated this way 3 times of its 1,266 uses · Strong’s H7200Verb · Translated: see 354, saw 285, seen 124, look 45Full study and all 1,181 verses →
- שָׂמֵחַ sâmêachglad, joyful, merrytranslated this way 2 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H8056Adjective · Translated: rejoicing 5, joyful 5, enjoy 2, rejoice 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Psalm 35:26 May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.
Proverbs 17:5 He who mocks the poor insults their Maker; whoever gloats over calamity will not go unpunished.
- פֶּה pehmouthtranslated this way 1 time of its 423 uses · Strong’s H6310Noun · Translated: mouth 207, mouths 43, command 38, lips 10Full study and all 396 verses →
Judges 9:38 “Where is your gloating now?” Zebul replied. “You said, ‘Who is Abimelech that we should serve him?’ Are these not the people you ridiculed? Go out now and fight them!”
- עֲלִיצוּת ălîtsûthexultationtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H5951Noun · Translated: gloating 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Habakkuk 3:14 With his own spear You pierced his head, when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though ready to secretly devour the weak.
- הָלַל hâlalshinetranslated this way 1 time of its 165 uses · Strong’s H1984Verb · Translated: praise 65, Hallelujah 24, praised 14, boast 9Full study and all 140 verses →
Proverbs 20:14 “Worthless, worthless!” says the buyer, but on the way out, he gloats.
Greek words (New Testament)
- χαίρω chaírōI rejoice, am gladtranslated this way 1 time of its 71 uses · Strong’s G5463Verb · Translated: rejoice 26, rejoiced 7, Greetings 6, glad 6Full study and all 65 verses →
Revelation 11:10 And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.
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.