Word study
Insist
2 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: insisted, insist, insisting. 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 “insist” 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)
- אָמַר âmarutter, saytranslated this way 4 times of its 4,555 uses · Strong’s H559Verb · Translated: said 1,531, says 576, say 352, replied 341Full study and all 3,827 verses →
Genesis 33:10 But Jacob insisted, “No, please! If I have found favor in your sight, then receive this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably.
- קָנָה qânâhget, acquiretranslated this way 2 times of its 82 uses · Strong’s H7069Verb · Translated: buy 16, bought 13, purchased 7, acquire 6Full study and all 75 verses →
2 Samuel 24:24 “No,” replied the king, “I insist on paying a price, for I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
1 Chronicles 21:24 “No,” replied King David, “I insist on paying the full price, for I will not take for the LORD what belongs to you, nor will I offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- διϊσχυρίζομαι diïschyrízomaiI assert emphaticallytranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1340Verb · Translated: insisted 1, kept insisting 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Luke 22:59 About an hour later, another man insisted, “Certainly this man was with Him, for he too is a Galilean.”
Acts 12:15 “You are out of your mind,” they told her. But when she kept insisting it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
- μαρτύρομαι martýromaiI call to witness, testify, solemnly chargetranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s G3143Verb · Translated: testify 3, insist 1, urging 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
- λαλέω laléōI speak, saytranslated this way 1 time of its 291 uses · Strong’s G2980Verb · Translated: speak 69, spoke 36, speaking 31, spoken 27Full study and all 268 verses →
Mark 14:31 But Peter kept insisting, “Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You.” And all the others said the same thing.
- ἐπισχύω epischýōI persist, insisttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2001Verb · Translated: kept insisting 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Luke 23:5 But they kept insisting, “He stirs up the people all over Judea with His teaching. He began in Galilee and has come all the way here.”
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.
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.