Word study
Laborer
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: laborers, laborer. 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 “laborer” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מַס masbody of forced labourers, task-workers, labour-band or gangtranslated this way 4 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H4522Noun · Translated: forced labor 11, forced laborers 4, forced 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Deuteronomy 20:11 If they accept your offer of peace and open their gates, all the people there will become forced laborers to serve you.
Judges 1:30 Zebulun failed to drive out the inhabitants of Kitron and Nahalol; so the Canaanites lived among them and served as forced laborers.
- עָבַד âbadwork, servetranslated this way 2 times of its 286 uses · Strong’s H5647Verb · Translated: serve 110, served 44, worship 32, work 9Full study and all 259 verses →
Joshua 16:10 But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, but they are forced laborers.
1 Kings 9:21 their descendants who remained in the land, those whom the Israelites were unable to devote to destruction— Solomon conscripted these people to be forced laborers, as they are to this day.
- סַבָּל sabbâlload, burdentranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H5449Noun · Translated: porters 2, laborers 1, laborer 1Full study and all 4 verses →
2 Chronicles 34:13 were over the laborers and supervised all who did the work, task by task. Some of the Levites were secretaries, officers, and gatekeepers.
Nehemiah 4:10 Meanwhile, the people of Judah said: “The strength of the laborer fails, and there is so much rubble that we will never be able to rebuild the wall.”
- נָשָׂא nâsâlift, take, carrytranslated this way 1 time of its 642 uses · Strong’s H5375Verb · Translated: bear 49, lift 45, lifted 41, carried 38Full study and all 601 verses →
Nehemiah 4:17 who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried materials worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other.
- שָׂכָר sâkârhire, wagestranslated this way 1 time of its 26 uses · Strong’s H7939Noun · Translated: wages 13, reward 6Full study and all 24 verses →
Malachi 3:5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
Greek words (New Testament)
- κοπιάω kopiáōI grow weary, toiltranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s G2872Verb · Translated: labor 5, worked 4, weary 2, worked hard 2Full study and all 21 verses →
1 Corinthians 16:16 to submit to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.
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.