Word study
Gush
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: gushed, gush, gushes. 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 “gush” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- זוּב zûbflow, gushtranslated this way 3 times of its 42 uses · Strong’s H2100Verb · Translated: flowing 18, discharge 7, man with the discharge 6, gushed 3Full study and all 41 verses →
Psalm 78:20 When He struck the rock, water gushed out and torrents raged. But can He also give bread or supply His people with meat?”
Isaiah 48:21 They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He made water flow for them from the rock; He split the rock, and water gushed out.
- יָצָא yâtsâgo or come outtranslated this way 1 time of its 1,035 uses · Strong’s H3318Verb · Translated: brought 108, went 103, go 82, came 78Full study and all 975 verses →
Numbers 20:11 Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.
- שָׁפַךְ shâphakpour out, pourtranslated this way 1 time of its 112 uses · Strong’s H8210Verb · Translated: pour 35, shed 26, poured 19, build 6Full study and all 108 verses →
1 Kings 18:28 So they shouted louder and cut themselves with knives and lances, as was their custom, until the blood gushed over them.
- עָזַז âzazbe strongtranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s H5810Verb · Translated: prevailed 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Proverbs 8:28 when He established the clouds above, when the fountains of the deep gushed forth,
- בָּקַע bâqacleave, break open or throughtranslated this way 1 time of its 51 uses · Strong’s H1234Verb · Translated: split 7, breached 4, divided 3, burst forth 2Full study and all 50 verses →
Isaiah 35:6 Then the lame will leap like a deer and the mute tongue will shout for joy. For waters will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
- נָזַל nâzalflow, trickle, drop, distiltranslated this way 1 time of its 16 uses · Strong’s H5140Verb · Translated: flow 3, currents 2, pour 2, streams 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Jeremiah 9:18 Let them come quickly and take up a lament over us, that our eyes may overflow with tears, and our eyelids may gush with water.
- קוּר qûrbore, digtranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s H6979Verb · Translated: dug wells 2, strike 1, breaking 1, gushes 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Jeremiah 6:7 As a well gushes its water, so she pours out her evil. Violence and destruction resound in her; sickness and wounds are ever before Me.
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.