Word study
Journey
7 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: journey, journeyed, journeys. 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 “journey” 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)
- דֶּרֶךְ derekway, road, distance, journey, mannertranslated this way 40 times of its 653 uses · Strong’s H1870Noun · Translated: way 204, ways 166, road 54, journey 35Full study and all 595 verses →
Genesis 24:21 Meanwhile, the man watched her silently to see whether or not the LORD had made his journey a success.
Exodus 3:18 The elders of Israel will listen to what you say, and you must go with them to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’
- נָסַע nâsapull out or up, set out, journeytranslated this way 6 times of its 146 uses · Strong’s H5265Verb · Translated: set 91, journeyed 4, moved 4, pulled 4Full study and all 139 verses →
Genesis 11:2 And as people journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
Exodus 12:37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth with about 600,000 men on foot, besides women and children.
- הָלַךְ hâlakgo, come, walktranslated this way 6 times of its 1,461 uses · Strong’s H1980Verb · Translated: go 338, went 173, walk 116, Come 84Full study and all 1,299 verses →
Genesis 13:3 From the Negev he journeyed from place to place toward Bethel, until he came to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had formerly been pitched,
Deuteronomy 2:7 Indeed, the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast wilderness. The LORD your God has been with you these forty years, and you have lacked nothing.
- מַסַּע massapulling up, breaking camp, setting out, journeytranslated this way 5 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H4550Noun · Translated: journeys 2, set 2, journey 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Exodus 40:36 Whenever the cloud was lifted from above the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out through all the stages of their journey.
Numbers 33:1 These are the journeys of the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt by their divisions under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
- מַהֲלָךְ mahălâkwalk, passage, distancetranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H4109Noun · Translated: journey 3, inner walkway 1, place 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Nehemiah 2:6 Then the king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me, and I set a time.
Jonah 3:3 This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.
- בּוֹא bôcome in, come, go in, gotranslated this way 2 times of its 2,442 uses · Strong’s H935Verb · Translated: come 358, came 298, bring 209, brought 201Full study and all 2,217 verses →
- עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 2 times of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb · Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35Full study and all 487 verses →
Judges 19:14 So they continued on their journey, and the sun set as they neared Gibeah in Benjamin.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀποδημέω apodēméōI go into another countrytranslated this way 5 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G589Verb · Translated: went away on a journey 2, going on a journey 1, went on his journey 1, journeyed 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Matthew 21:33 Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
Mark 12:1 Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.
- ὁδός hodósa way, road, journeytranslated this way 4 times of its 97 uses · Strong’s G3598Noun · Translated: way 49, road 22, path 8, ways 6Full study and all 95 verses →
Mark 6:8 He instructed them to take nothing but a staff for the journey — no bread, no bag, no money in their belts —
Luke 9:3 “Take nothing for the journey,” He told them, “no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no second tunic.
- ὁδοιπορία hodoiporíaa journey, traveltranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G3597Noun · Translated: journey 1, frequent journeys 1Full study and all 2 verses →
John 4:6 Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
2 Corinthians 11:26 In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers,
- πορεύομαι poreúomaiI travel, journey, gotranslated this way 2 times of its 147 uses · Strong’s G4198Verb · Translated: go 59, went 22, going 10, way 8Full study and all 141 verses →
Acts 9:3 As Saul drew near to Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
Acts 21:5 But when our time there had ended, we set out on our journey. All the disciples, with their wives and children, accompanied us out of the city and knelt down on the beach to pray with us.
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.