Word study
Grieve
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: grieved, grieve, grieving, grieves. 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 “grieve” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עָצַב âtsabhurt, pain, grievetranslated this way 8 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H6087Verb · Translated: grieved 5, grieve 2Full study and all 17 verses →
Genesis 6:6 And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
1 Samuel 20:3 But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”
- נָחַם nâchambe sorry, consoletranslated this way 3 times of its 106 uses · Strong’s H5162Verb · Translated: comfort 24, relent 13, comforted 12, relented 7Full study and all 98 verses →
Genesis 6:7 So the LORD said, “I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — every man and beast and crawling creature and bird of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them.”
Judges 21:6 And the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites, and said, “Today a tribe is cut off from Israel.
- יָגָה yâgâhsuffertranslated this way 3 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H3013Verb · Translated: grieve 3, torment 1, tormentors 1, brought her grief 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Lamentations 1:4 The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gates are deserted; her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she herself is bitter with anguish.
Zephaniah 3:18 “I will gather those among you who grieve over the appointed feasts, so that you will no longer suffer reproach.
- חָלָה châlâhbe weak, sicktranslated this way 2 times of its 75 uses · Strong’s H2470Verb · Translated: ill 8, sick 8, grievous 5, sought 4Full study and all 73 verses →
Psalm 77:10 So I said, “I am grieved that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
Amos 6:6 You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you fail to grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
- נוּד nûdmove to and fro, wander, flutter, shew grieftranslated this way 2 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5110Verb · Translated: Flee 3, wanderer 2, grieve 2, mourn 2Full study and all 24 verses →
Isaiah 51:19 These pairs have befallen you: devastation and destruction, famine and sword. Who will grieve for you? Who can comfort you?
Nahum 3:7 Then all who see you will recoil from you and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated; who will grieve for her?’ Where can I find comforters for you?”
- מָרַר mârarbe bittertranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H4843Verb · Translated: bitter 2, rage 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Zechariah 12:10 Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
Greek words (New Testament)
- λυπέω lypéōI pain, grieve, vextranslated this way 11 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s G3076Verb · Translated: sorrow 5, grieve 5, grieved 4, deeply grieved 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Matthew 14:9 The king was grieved, but because of his oaths and his guests, he ordered that her wish be granted
Mark 14:19 They began to be grieved and to ask Him one after another, “Surely not I?”
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.