Word study

Harden

4 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: hardened, harden, hardens, hardening. 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 “harden” 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)

  • חָזַק châzaqbe or grow firm, strong, strengthentranslated this way 13 times of its 290 uses · Strong’s H2388Verb  ·  Translated: strong 37, made repairs 22, strengthened 16, repaired 15

    Exodus 4:21 The LORD instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.

    Joshua 11:20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts to engage Israel in battle, so that they would be set apart for destruction and would receive no mercy, being annihilated as the LORD had commanded Moses.

    Full study and all 264 verses →
  • כָּבַד kâbadbe heavy, weighty, burdensome, honouredtranslated this way 7 times of its 109 uses · Strong’s H3513Verb  ·  Translated: honor 19, honored 11, heavy 10, hardened 6

    Exodus 8:15 When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, however, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.

    1 Samuel 6:6 Why harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened theirs? When He afflicted them, did they not send the people out so they could go on their way?

    Full study and all 105 verses →
  • קָשָׁה qâshâhbe hard, severe, fiercetranslated this way 3 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s H7185Verb  ·  Translated: stiffened 6, difficult 2, harden 2, stiffen 2

    Exodus 7:3 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I will multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt,

    Psalm 95:8 do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, in the day at Massah in the wilderness,

    Full study and all 28 verses →
  • אָמַץ âmatsbe alerttranslated this way 2 times of its 41 uses · Strong’s H553Verb  ·  Translated: courageous 13, strengthen 3, mighty 2, haste 2

    Deuteronomy 15:7 If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.

    2 Chronicles 36:13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. But Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel.

    Full study and all 41 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • σκληρύνω sklērýnōI hardentranslated this way 5 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G4645Verb  ·  Translated: harden 3, stubbornly 1, hardens 1, hardened 1

    Romans 9:18 Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy , and He hardens whom He wants to harden .

    Hebrews 3:8 do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness,

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • πωρόω pōróōI harden, render calloustranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G4456Verb  ·  Translated: hardened 3, hard 1, closed 1

    Mark 6:52 for they had not understood about the loaves, but their hearts had been hardened.

    John 12:40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”

    Full study and all 5 verses →
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.

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.