Word study

Immediately

1 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “immediately”. 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 “immediately” or one of its forms.

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • מָהַר mâharhastentranslated this way 3 times of its 66 uses · Strong’s H4116Verb  ·  Translated: quickly 20, hurried 9, Hurry 6, swift 4

    Exodus 34:8 Moses immediately bowed down to the ground and worshiped.

    Joshua 8:19 and as soon as he did so, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They rushed forward, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.

    Full study and all 61 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • εὐθέως euthéōsimmediately, soontranslated this way 27 times of its 73 uses · Strong’s G2112Adverb  ·  Translated: immediately 27, once 21, soon 9, quickly 4

    Matthew 4:22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed Him.

    Mark 1:20 Immediately Jesus called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him.

    Full study and all 72 verses →
  • παραχρῆμα parachrēmainstantly, immediatelytranslated this way 9 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s G3916Adverb  ·  Translated: immediately 9, once 4, quickly 1, imminently 1

    Matthew 21:19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. “May you never bear fruit again!” He said. And immediately the tree withered.

    Luke 1:64 Immediately Zechariah’s mouth was opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak, praising God.

    Full study and all 17 verses →
  • ἐξαυτῆς exautēsimmediately, instantlytranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G1824Adverb  ·  Translated: immediately 3, once 1, soon 1

    Mark 6:25 At once the girl hurried back to the king with her request: “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter immediately.”

    Acts 10:33 So I sent for you immediately, and you were kind enough to come. Now then, we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has instructed you to tell us.”

    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.