Word study

Interest

5 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • נֶשֶׁךְ neshekinterest, usurytranslated this way 7 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H5392Noun  ·  Translated: interest 7, usury 3

    Exodus 22:25 If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest.

    Leviticus 25:36 Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • תַּרְבִּית tarbîthincrement, interest, usurytranslated this way 3 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H8636Noun  ·  Translated: excess interest 3, usury 2, profit 1

    Ezekiel 18:8 He does not engage in usury or take excess interest, but he withholds his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between men.

    Ezekiel 18:13 He engages in usury and takes excess interest. Will this son live? He will not! Since he has committed all these abominations, he will surely die; his blood will be on his own head.

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • נָשַׁךְ nâshakbitetranslated this way 1 time of its 15 uses · Strong’s H5391Verb  ·  Translated: bitten 5, bites 3, bite 2

    Deuteronomy 23:20 You may charge a foreigner interest, but not your brother, so that the LORD your God may bless you in everything to which you put your hand in the land that you are entering to possess.

    Full study and all 14 verses →
  • שָׁוָה shâvâhbe even, smoothtranslated this way 1 time of its 22 uses · Strong’s H7737Verb  ·  Translated: makes 2, set 2, compares 2

    Esther 3:8 Then Haman informed King Xerxes, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples of every province of your kingdom. Their laws are different from everyone else’s, and they do not obey the king’s laws. So it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.

    Full study and all 22 verses →
  • נְזַק nezaqsuffer injurytranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H5142Verb  ·  Translated: suffer 1, harmful 1, interests to suffer 1, suffer loss 1

    Ezra 4:22 See that you do not neglect this matter. Why allow this threat to increase and the royal interests to suffer?

    Full study and all 4 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ὁ hothetranslated this way 3 times of its 9,898 uses · Strong’s G3588Article  ·  Translated: the 6,410, of the 748, of 344, who 329Full study and all 5,117 verses →
  • τόκος tókosinterest, usurytranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G5110Noun  ·  Translated: interest 2

    Matthew 25:27 Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received it back with interest.

    Luke 19:23 Why then did you not deposit my money in the bank, and upon my return I could have collected it with interest?’

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • νοσέω noséōI am diseasedtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G3552Verb  ·  Translated: unhealthy interest 1

    1 Timothy 6:4 he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and disputes about words, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions,

    Full study and its 1 verse →
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 interest: 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.