Word study

Hesitate

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: hesitate, hesitating. 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 “hesitate” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אָחַר âcharto remain behind, delay, tarrytranslated this way 2 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H309Verb  ·  Translated: delay 6, hesitate 2, delayed 2, linger 2

    Genesis 34:19 The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.

    Deuteronomy 7:10 But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.

    Full study and all 17 verses →
  • עָצַל âtsalbe sluggishtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H6101Verb  ·  Translated: hesitate 1

    Judges 18:9 They answered, “Come on, let us go up against them, for we have seen the land, and it is very good. Why would you fail to act? Do not hesitate to go there and take possession of the land!

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • חָשַׂךְ châsakwithhold, refraintranslated this way 1 time of its 27 uses · Strong’s H2820Verb  ·  Translated: withheld 3, restrained 3, restrain 2, restrains 2

    Job 30:10 They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face.

    Full study and all 27 verses →
  • מָהַהּ mâhahhlinger, tarrytranslated this way 1 time of its 9 uses · Strong’s H4102Verb  ·  Translated: but when 1, delayed 1, delay 1, servants waited 1

    Psalm 119:60 I hurried without hesitating to keep Your commandments.

    Full study and all 9 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.