Word study

Incite

4 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: incited, inciting, incite. 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 “incite” 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)

  • סוּת sûthincite, allure, instigatetranslated this way 4 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H5496Verb  ·  Translated: urged 3, stirred 2, incited 2, mislead 2

    1 Kings 21:25 (Surely there was never one like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the LORD, incited by his wife Jezebel.

    1 Chronicles 21:1 Then Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.

    Full study and all 18 verses →
  • עֲבַד ăbaddo, make, preparetranslated this way 1 time of its 25 uses · Strong’s H5648Verb  ·  Translated: made 4, done 4, carried 3, cut 2

    Ezra 4:15 that a search should be made of the record books of your fathers. In these books you will discover and verify that the city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and provinces, inciting sedition from ancient times. That is why this city was destroyed.

    Full study and all 23 verses →
  • סָכַךְ sâkakovershadow, screen, covertranslated this way 1 time of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5526Verb  ·  Translated: overshadowing 2, cover 2, overshadowed 2, knit me together 2

    Isaiah 19:2 “So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian; brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

    Full study and all 24 verses →
  • עוּר ûrrouse oneself, awaketranslated this way 1 time of its 80 uses · Strong’s H5782Verb  ·  Translated: Awake 19, stirred 9, awaken 6, rouse 5

    Ezekiel 23:22 Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will incite your lovers against you, those from whom you turned away in disgust. And I will bring them against you from every side —

    Full study and all 65 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • παροτρύνω parotrýnōI stir up, incitetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G3951Verb  ·  Translated: incited 1

    Acts 13:50 The Jews, however, incited the religious women of prominence and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • ἀναστατόω anastatóōI turn upside down, upset, unsettletranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s G387Verb  ·  Translated: turned 1, incited a rebellion 1, agitating 1

    Acts 21:38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who incited a rebellion some time ago and led four thousand members of the Assassins into the wilderness?”

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • ἀποστρέφω apostréphōI turn away, restore, rejecttranslated this way 1 time of its 9 uses · Strong’s G654Verb  ·  Translated: turn away 1, Put 1, inciting 1, turning 1

    Luke 23:14 and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was inciting the people to rebellion. I have examined Him here in your presence and found Him not guilty of your charges against Him.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • σαλεύω saleúōI shake, excitetranslated this way 1 time of its 15 uses · Strong’s G4531Verb  ·  Translated: shaken 6, swaying 2, shook 2

    Acts 17:13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that Paul was also proclaiming the word of God in Berea, they went there themselves to incite and agitate the crowds.

    Full study and all 14 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.