Word study

Greatly

6 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “greatly”. 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 “greatly” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מְאֹד meôdmuchness, force, abundance, exceedinglytranslated this way 29 times of its 195 uses · Strong’s H3966Adverb  ·  Translated: greatly 28, very 12, was very 8, exceedingly 8

    Genesis 7:18 So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

    Numbers 11:10 Then Moses heard the people of family after family weeping at the entrances to their tents, and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was also displeased.

    Full study and all 186 verses →
  • רָבָה râbâhbe, or become, much, many, greattranslated this way 4 times of its 219 uses · Strong’s H7235Verb  ·  Translated: multiply 39, multiplied 23, many 15, much 10

    Genesis 16:10 Then the angel added, “I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count.”

    2 Chronicles 11:12 He also put shields and spears in all the cities and strengthened them greatly. So Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.

    Full study and all 207 verses →
  • גָּדוֹל gâdôlgreattranslated this way 4 times of its 501 uses · Strong’s H1419Adjective  ·  Translated: great 262, large 33, high 20, loud 14Full study and all 477 verses →
  • רַב rabmuch, many, greattranslated this way 2 times of its 445 uses · Strong’s H7227Adjective  ·  Translated: many 171, great 65, captain 24, long 14

    Job 31:34 because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside —

    Full study and all 426 verses →
  • גִּיל gîlrejoicetranslated this way 2 times of its 43 uses · Strong’s H1523Verb  ·  Translated: rejoice 35, glad 2, exult 2

    Psalm 21:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O LORD, the king rejoices in Your strength. How greatly he exults in Your salvation!

    Proverbs 23:24 The father of a righteous man will greatly rejoice, and he who fathers a wise son will delight in him.

    Full study and all 43 verses →
  • שׂוּשׂ sûsexult, rejoicetranslated this way 2 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H7797Verb  ·  Translated: rejoice 10, glad 3, exult 2, rejoice greatly 2

    Isaiah 61:10 I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

    Isaiah 66:10 Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her, all who love her. Rejoice greatly with her, all who mourn over her,

    Full study and all 24 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.