Word study
Gnash
1 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: gnashing, gnash, gnashes, gnashed. 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 “gnash” or one of its forms.
Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- חָרַק châraqgnash or grind the teethtranslated this way 5 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H2786Verb · Translated: gnash 3, gnashes 1, gnashed 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Job 16:9 His anger has torn me and opposed me; He gnashes His teeth at me. My adversary pierces me with His eyes.
Psalm 35:16 Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.
Greek words (New Testament)
- βρυγμός brygmósa grinding or gnashingtranslated this way 7 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G1030Noun · Translated: gnashing 7Full study and all 7 verses →
Matthew 8:12 But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Luke 13:28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are thrown out.
- τρίζω trízōI grate, gnashtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G5149Verb · Translated: gnashes 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Mark 9:18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable.”
- βρύχω brýchōI grind or gnashtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G1031Verb · Translated: gnashed 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Acts 7:54 On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him.
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.