Word study

Imprisonment

1 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אֱסוּר ĕsûrband, bondtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H613Noun  ·  Translated: band 2, imprisonment 1

    Ezra 7:26 If anyone does not keep the law of your God and the law of the king, let a strict judgment be executed against him, whether death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.

    Full study and all 3 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • φυλακή phylakḗa watching, guard, prison, imprisonmenttranslated this way 3 times of its 43 uses · Strong’s G5438Noun  ·  Translated: prison 27, watch 3, jail 3, watch of the night 2

    2 Corinthians 6:5 in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in labor, sleepless nights, and hunger;

    Hebrews 11:36 Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

    Full study and all 43 verses →
  • δεσμόν desmóna bond, chaintranslated this way 2 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s G1199Noun  ·  Translated: chains 13, imprisonment 2, bondage 1, chained 1

    Acts 23:29 I found that the accusation involved questions about their own law, but there was no charge worthy of death or imprisonment.

    Acts 26:31 On their way out, they said to one another, “This man has done nothing worthy of death or imprisonment.”

    Full study and all 17 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.

What the Bible says about imprisonment: 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.