Word study

Ill

3 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “ill”. 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 “ill” 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)

  • חָלָה châlâhbe weak, sicktranslated this way 13 times of its 75 uses · Strong’s H2470Verb  ·  Translated: ill 8, sick 8, grievous 5, sought 4

    Genesis 48:1 Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he set out with his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

    1 Samuel 19:14 When Saul sent the messengers to seize David, Michal said, “He is ill.”

    Full study and all 73 verses →
  • אָנַשׁ ânashbe weak, sicktranslated this way 1 time of its 9 uses · Strong’s H605Verb  ·  Translated: incurable 5, became ill 1, beyond cure 1, despair 1

    2 Samuel 12:15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • זִמָּה zimmâhplan, device, wickednesstranslated this way 1 time of its 29 uses · Strong’s H2154Noun  ·  Translated: indecency 7, lewd 3, depraved 2, depravity 2

    Proverbs 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable— how much more so when brought with ill intent!

    Full study and all 27 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κακῶς kakōsbadly, evillytranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s G2560Adverb  ·  Translated: sick 8, ill 2

    Matthew 4:24 News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them.

    Mark 1:34 And He healed many who were ill with various diseases and drove out many demons. But He would not allow the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • ἀσθενέω asthenéōI am weak, sicktranslated this way 2 times of its 33 uses · Strong’s G770Verb  ·  Translated: sick 14, weak 12, ill 2

    Luke 4:40 At sunset, all who were ill with various diseases were brought to Jesus, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them.

    Philippians 2:26 For he has been longing for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.

    Full study and all 32 verses →
  • κακός kakósbad, eviltranslated this way 1 time of its 50 uses · Strong’s G2556Adjective  ·  Translated: evil 29, wrong 6, harm 3, bad 3

    Acts 28:5 But Paul shook the creature off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.

    Full study and all 45 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.