Word study
Lying
8 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “lying”. 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 “lying” 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)
- שֶׁקֶר sheqerdeception, disappointment, falsehoodtranslated this way 16 times of its 104 uses · Strong’s H8267Noun · Translated: lies 18, lying 16, false 12, falsely 10Full study and all 100 verses →
1 Kings 22:22 And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ ‘You will surely entice him and prevail,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’
2 Chronicles 18:21 And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.’ ‘You will surely entice him and prevail,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’
- שָׁכַב shâkablie downtranslated this way 15 times of its 207 uses · Strong’s H7901Verb · Translated: lie 46, rested 35, lies 25, lay 21Full study and all 190 verses →
Genesis 34:7 When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter — a thing that should not be done.
Deuteronomy 22:22 If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
- כָּזָב kâzâblie, falsehood, deceptive thingtranslated this way 6 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H3577Noun · Translated: lies 14, lying 4, speak lying 2Full study and all 27 verses →
Proverbs 21:28 A lying witness will perish, but the man who listens to truth will speak forever.
Ezekiel 13:6 They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ when the LORD did not send them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message.
- נָפַל nâphalfall, lietranslated this way 3 times of its 432 uses · Strong’s H5307Verb · Translated: fall 104, fell 77, fallen 54, falls 21Full study and all 403 verses →
Deuteronomy 21:1 If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him,
Judges 3:25 So they waited until they became worried and saw that he had still not opened the doors of the upper room. Then they took the key and opened the doors— and there was their lord lying dead on the floor.
- שָׁלַךְ shâlakthrow, fling, casttranslated this way 3 times of its 126 uses · Strong’s H7993Verb · Translated: cast 27, threw 20, throw 16, thrown 10Full study and all 121 verses →
1 Kings 13:24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.
1 Kings 13:25 And there were men passing by who saw the body lying in the road with the lion standing beside it, and they went and reported this in the city where the old prophet lived.
- עָלָה âlâhgo up, ascend, climbtranslated this way 3 times of its 873 uses · Strong’s H5927Verb · Translated: go 118, went 107, brought 56, come 42Full study and all 807 verses →
2 Kings 1:4 Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘You will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’” So Elijah departed.
2 Kings 1:6 They replied, “A man came up to meet us and said, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and tell him that this is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending these men to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not get up from the bed on which you are lying. You will surely die.’”
- כָּחַשׁ kâchashbe disappointing, deceive, fail, grow leantranslated this way 2 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H3584Verb · Translated: cower 4, denied 2, lied 2, deny 2Full study and all 22 verses →
1 Kings 13:18 Then the prophet replied, “I too am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” The old prophet was lying to him,
Hosea 4:2 Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.
- עַל alheighttranslated this way 2 times of its 4,859 uses · Strong’s H5921Preposition · Translated: on 777, over 297, in 218, against 216Full study and all 3,996 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- κεῖμαι keîmaiI lie, recline, am laidtranslated this way 5 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s G2749Verb · Translated: lying 5, lies ready 2, appointed 2, laid 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Luke 2:12 And this will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
John 20:5 He bent down and looked in at the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
- ψεύδομαι pseúdomaiI lietranslated this way 3 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s G5574Verb · Translated: lie 5, lying 3, falsely 1, lied 1Full study and all 12 verses →
Romans 9:1 I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 11:31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is forever worthy of praise, knows that I am not lying.
- βάλλω bállōI cast, throw, rush, put, place, droptranslated this way 2 times of its 120 uses · Strong’s G906Verb · Translated: thrown 26, put 16, throw 11, cast 10Full study and all 106 verses →
Matthew 9:2 Just then some men brought to Him a paralytic lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven.”
Mark 7:30 And she went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone.
- κατάκειμαι katákeimaiI recline, am lying illtranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s G2621Verb · Translated: sick in bed 2, dining 2, lying 2, eating 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Luke 5:25 And immediately the man stood up before them, took what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God.
John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
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 lying: 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.