Word study

Govern

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: govern, governed, governs, governing. 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 “govern” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • שָׁפַט shâphaṭjudge, governtranslated this way 7 times of its 199 uses · Strong’s H8199Verb  ·  Translated: judge 81, judges 35, judged 15, vindicate 7

    1 Kings 3:9 Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

    2 Kings 15:5 And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.

    Full study and all 181 verses →
  • דִּין dînjudgetranslated this way 2 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H1777Verb  ·  Translated: judge 7, vindicate 3, contend 2, judges 2

    Psalm 9:8 He judges the world with justice; He governs the people with equity.

    Zechariah 3:7 “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘If you walk in My ways and keep My instructions, then you will govern My house and will also have charge of My courts; and I will give you a place among these who are standing here.

    Full study and all 23 verses →
  • חָבַשׁ châbashbind, bind on, bind uptranslated this way 1 time of its 32 uses · Strong’s H2280Verb  ·  Translated: saddled 11, binds 3, Saddle 2, bind 2

    Job 34:17 Could one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn the just and mighty One,

    Full study and all 30 verses →
  • מֶמְשָׁלָה memshâlâhrule, dominion, realmtranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H4475Noun  ·  Translated: dominion 8, rule 4, authority 2, forces 1

    Psalm 136:9 the moon and stars to govern the night. His loving devotion endures forever.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • פָּקַד pâqadattend to, visit, muster, appointtranslated this way 1 time of its 294 uses · Strong’s H6485Verb  ·  Translated: punish 41, numbered 26, appointed 15, counted 14

    Jeremiah 41:2 Then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, killing the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the land.

    Full study and all 267 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἐξουσία exousíapower, authority, weighttranslated this way 1 time of its 100 uses · Strong’s G1849Noun  ·  Translated: authority 65, power 10, right 9, authorities 7

    Romans 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.

    Full study and all 92 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.