Word study
Hire
4 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: hired, hire, hires. 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 “hire” 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)
- שָׂכַר sâkarhiretranslated this way 17 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7936Verb · Translated: hired 12, hire 4, hires 1, or 1Full study and all 18 verses →
Genesis 30:16 When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
Deuteronomy 23:4 For they did not meet you with food and water on your way out of Egypt, and they hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in Aram-naharaim to curse you.
- שָׂכִיר sâkîrhiredtranslated this way 13 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H7916Adjective · Translated: hired hand 7, hired worker 3Full study and all 17 verses →
Exodus 12:45 A temporary resident or hired hand shall not eat the Passover.
Leviticus 19:13 You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
- תָּנָה tânâhhiretranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8566Verb · Translated: hired 1, hire allies 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Hosea 8:9 For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.
Hosea 8:10 Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes.
- אֶתְנַן ethnanhiretranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H868Noun · Translated: wages 4, hire 2Full study and all 8 verses →
Isaiah 23:17 And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.
Hosea 9:1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
Greek words (New Testament)
- μισθωτός misthōtósa hired servanttranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G3411Noun · Translated: hired men 1, hired hand 1, hired servant 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Mark 1:20 Immediately Jesus called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him.
John 10:12 The hired hand is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf pounces on them and scatters the flock.
- μισθόω misthóōI hire out, hire, engagetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G3409Verb · Translated: hire 1, hired 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
Matthew 20:7 ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. So he told them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’
- μίσθιος místhiosa paid workertranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G3407Adjective · Translated: hired servants 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Luke 15:17 Finally he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have plenty of food, but here I am, starving to death!
Luke 15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’
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.
What the Bible says about hire: passages by topic →
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.