Word study
Harass
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: harass, harassed. 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 “harass” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- צָרַר tsârarbind, tie up, be restricted, narrow, scant, crampedtranslated this way 2 times of its 53 uses · Strong’s H6887Verb · Translated: distress 5, foes 4, enemy 4, enemies 4Full study and all 52 verses →
Numbers 33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you settle.
Isaiah 11:13 Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and the adversaries of Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will no longer envy Judah, nor will Judah harass Ephraim.
- צוּר tsûrconfine, bind, besiegetranslated this way 2 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H6696Verb · Translated: besieged 10, besiege 7, besieging 4, lay siege 3Full study and all 38 verses →
Deuteronomy 2:9 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.”
Deuteronomy 2:19 But when you get close to the Ammonites, do not harass them or provoke them, for I will not give you any of the land of the Ammonites. I have given it to the descendants of Lot as their possession.”
- כָּלַם kâlambe humiliatedtranslated this way 2 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H3637Verb · Translated: humiliated 9, ashamed 7, disgraced 3, blush 2Full study and all 38 verses →
1 Samuel 25:7 Now I hear that it is time for shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel.
1 Samuel 25:15 Yet these men were very good to us. When we were in the field, we were not harassed, and nothing of ours went missing the whole time we lived among them.
- פּוּץ pûtsbe dispersed, scatteredtranslated this way 1 time of its 67 uses · Strong’s H6327Verb · Translated: scattered 30, scatter 15, disperse 5, deserted 2Full study and all 66 verses →
Job 18:11 Terrors frighten him on every side and harass his every step.
- רָעַץ râatsshattertranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H7492Verb · Translated: shattered 1, harassed 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Judges 10:8 who that very year harassed and oppressed the Israelites, and they did so for eighteen years to all the Israelites on the other side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites.
Greek words (New Testament)
- σκύλλω skýllōI flay, trouble, annoytranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s G4660Verb · Translated: bother 2, harassed 1, trouble 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Matthew 9:36 When He saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
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.