Word study

Greed

1 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • בֶּצַע betsagain made by violence, unjust gain, profittranslated this way 1 time of its 22 uses · Strong’s H1215Noun  ·  Translated: gain 6, dishonest gain 4, unjust gain 3

    Isaiah 57:17 I was enraged by his sinful greed, so I struck him and hid My face in anger; yet he kept turning back to the desires of his heart.

    Full study and all 22 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πλεονεξία pleonexíacovetousness, avaricetranslated this way 8 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G4124Noun  ·  Translated: greed 8, begrudgingly 1, craving for more 1

    Mark 7:22 greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness.

    Luke 12:15 And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • ἁρπαγή harpagḗthe act of plundering, plunder, spoiltranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G724Noun  ·  Translated: greed 2, confiscation 1

    Matthew 23:25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

    Luke 11:39 Then the Lord said, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • αἰσχροκερδῶς aischrokerdōsgreedilytranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G147Adverb  ·  Translated: greed 1

    1 Peter 5:2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over them not out of compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed, but out of eagerness;

    Full study and its 1 verse →
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.

What the Bible says about greed: passages by topic →

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.