Word study

Inspect

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: inspect, inspected, inspects, inspecting. 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 “inspect” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • רָאָה rââhseetranslated this way 8 times of its 1,266 uses · Strong’s H7200Verb  ·  Translated: see 354, saw 285, seen 124, look 45

    Exodus 39:43 And Moses inspected all the work and saw that they had accomplished it just as the LORD had commanded. So Moses blessed them.

    Full study and all 1,181 verses →
  • שָׂבַר sâbarinspect, examinetranslated this way 2 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H7663Verb  ·  Translated: wait 2, inspected 2, look 2, hoped 1

    Nehemiah 2:13 So I went out at night through the Valley Gate toward the Well of the Serpent and the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and the gates that had been destroyed by fire.

    Nehemiah 2:15 so I went up the valley by night and inspected the wall. Then I headed back and reentered through the Valley Gate.

    Full study and all 8 verses →
  • בָּקַר bâqarinquire, seektranslated this way 1 time of its 7 uses · Strong’s H1239Verb  ·  Translated: look 2, seek 2, inspect 1, seek guidance 1

    Leviticus 27:33 He must not inspect whether it is good or bad, and he shall not make any substitution. But if he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute shall become holy; they cannot be redeemed.’”

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • פָּקַד pâqadattend to, visit, muster, appointtranslated this way 1 time of its 294 uses · Strong’s H6485Verb  ·  Translated: punish 41, numbered 26, appointed 15, counted 14

    Job 5:24 You will know that your tent is secure, and find nothing amiss when inspecting your home.

    Full study and all 267 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ὁράω horáōI see, look upon, experiencetranslated this way 1 time of its 445 uses · Strong’s G3708Verb  ·  Translated: saw 183, see 121, seen 60, appeared 18

    Mark 12:15 But Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to inspect.”

    Full study and all 424 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.