Word study

Lend

5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • לָוָה lâvâhjointranslated this way 6 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H3867Verb  ·  Translated: join 8, lend 4, borrow 2, joined 2

    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.

    Deuteronomy 28:12 The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but borrow from none.

    Full study and all 22 verses →
  • נָשָׁה nâshâhlend, borrowtranslated this way 3 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H5383Verb  ·  Translated: creditor 3, lending 2

    Deuteronomy 24:10 When you lend anything to your neighbor, do not enter his house to collect security.

    Nehemiah 5:10 I, as well as my brothers and my servants, have been lending the people money and grain. Please, let us stop this usury.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • נָתַן nâthangive, put, settranslated this way 2 times of its 1,957 uses · Strong’s H5414Verb  ·  Translated: give 326, gave 206, given 187, put 135

    Leviticus 25:37 You must not lend him your silver at interest or sell him your food for profit.

    Full study and all 1,785 verses →
  • עָבַט âbaṭtake or give a pledgetranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s H5670Verb  ·  Translated: lend 1, borrow 1, freely loan 1, collect 1

    Deuteronomy 15:6 When the LORD your God blesses you as He has promised, you will lend to many nations but borrow from none; you will rule over many nations but be ruled by none.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • הָיָה hâyâhfall out, come to pass, become, betranslated this way 1 time of its 2,848 uses · Strong’s H1961Verb  ·  Translated: will be 206, become 178, came 169, was 151Full study and all 2,573 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • δανείζω daneízōI lend, borrowtranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G1155Verb  ·  Translated: lend 3, borrow 1

    Luke 6:34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.

    Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • χράω chráōI lendtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G5531Verb  ·  Translated: lend 1

    Luke 11:5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you goes to his friend at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

    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.

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.