Word study
Lust
6 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: lust, lusted, lusts. 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 “lust” 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)
- עֲגַב ăgabhave inordinate affection, lusttranslated this way 6 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H5689Verb · Translated: lusted 6, lovers 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Ezekiel 23:5 Oholah prostituted herself while she was still Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians — warriors
Ezekiel 23:7 She offered sexual favors to all the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of those for whom she lusted.
- תַּזְנוּת taznûthfornicationtranslated this way 2 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H8457Noun · Translated: prostitution 6, promiscuity 6, lust 2Full study and all 18 verses →
Ezekiel 23:8 She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her.
Ezekiel 23:17 Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. But after she had been defiled by them, she turned away in disgust.
- חָמַד châmaddesire, take pleasure intranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s H2530Verb · Translated: covet 6, delight 2, desire 2, precious 2Full study and all 22 verses →
Proverbs 6:25 Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.
- חָמַם châmambe or become warmtranslated this way 1 time of its 20 uses · Strong’s H2552Verb · Translated: warm 4, keep warm 3, grew hot 2, hot 2Full study and all 18 verses →
Isaiah 57:5 who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
- עֲגָבָה ăgâbâhlustfulesstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H5691Noun · Translated: lust 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Ezekiel 23:11 Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister.
- זָנָה zânâhcommit fornication, be a harlottranslated this way 1 time of its 89 uses · Strong’s H2181Verb · Translated: prostitute 29, prostituted 16, prostitutes 7, harlot 5Full study and all 81 verses →
Ezekiel 6:9 Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me — how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐπιθυμία epithymíadesire, eagerness for, inordinate desire, lusttranslated this way 2 times of its 37 uses · Strong’s G1939Noun · Translated: desires 17, passions 6, desire 5, evil desires 3Full study and all 36 verses →
1 Peter 4:3 For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.
Jude 1:16 These men are discontented grumblers, following after their own lusts; their mouths spew arrogance; they flatter others for their own advantage.
- ἐπιθυμέω epithyméōI long for, covet, lust aftertranslated this way 1 time of its 15 uses · Strong’s G1937Verb · Translated: long 3, longed 2, covet 2Full study and all 15 verses →
Matthew 5:28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
- ὄρεξις órexisstrong desire, lusttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G3715Noun · Translated: lust 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Romans 1:27 Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
- πάθος páthossuffering, emotion, depraved passion, lusttranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s G3806Noun · Translated: passions 1, lust 1, passion 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.
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.
What the Bible says about lust: 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.