Word study
Hard
3 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “hard”. 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 “hard” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- קָשֶׁה qâshehhard, severetranslated this way 3 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s H7186Adjective · Translated: stiff-necked 6, harshly 5, hard 3, stubborn 2Full study and all 35 verses →
Exodus 1:14 and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh.
Deuteronomy 26:6 But the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us, putting us to hard labor.
- יָצַק yâtsaqpour, cast, flowtranslated this way 2 times of its 50 uses · Strong’s H3332Verb · Translated: pour 12, cast 10, poured 8, anointed 2Full study and all 48 verses →
Job 41:24 His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone!
- חָזָק châzâqstrong, stout, mightytranslated this way 2 times of its 55 uses · Strong’s H2389Adjective · Translated: mighty 20, strong 18, powerful 2, hard 2Full study and all 53 verses →
Ezekiel 3:7 But the house of Israel will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me. For the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted.
Ezekiel 3:8 Behold, I will make your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.
Greek words (New Testament)
- κοπιάω kopiáōI grow weary, toiltranslated this way 6 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s G2872Verb · Translated: labor 5, worked 4, weary 2, worked hard 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Luke 5:5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we have worked hard all night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.”
John 4:38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”
- δυσκόλως dyskólōswith difficulty, hardlytranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G1423Adverb · Translated: hard 3Full study and all 3 verses →
Matthew 19:23 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Mark 10:23 Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
- σκληρός sklēróshard, violent, harsh, sterntranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G4642Adjective · Translated: hard 2, difficult 1, strong 1, harsh 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Matthew 25:24 Finally, the servant who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.
Acts 26:14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew,‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
- πολύς polýsmuch, many, oftentranslated this way 2 times of its 338 uses · Strong’s G4183Adjective · Translated: many 172, great 37, large 32, much 31Full study and all 307 verses →
Romans 16:6 Greet Mary, who has worked very hard for you.
Romans 16:12 Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, women who have worked hard in the Lord. Greet my beloved Persis, who has worked very hard in the Lord.
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.