Word study
Marry
6 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: married, marry, marries, marrying. 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 “marry” 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)
- לָקַח lâqachtaketranslated this way 42 times of its 938 uses · Strong’s H3947Verb · Translated: take 247, took 245, taken 40, get 26Full study and all 890 verses →
Genesis 4:19 And Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.
Exodus 2:1 Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman,
- הָיָה hâyâhfall out, come to pass, become, betranslated this way 11 times of its 2,848 uses · Strong’s H1961Verb · Translated: will be 206, become 178, came 169, was 151Full study and all 2,573 verses →
- יָשַׁב yâshabsit, remain, dwelltranslated this way 7 times of its 1,049 uses · Strong’s H3427Verb · Translated: lived 103, dwell 89, live 84, sit 70Full study and all 960 verses →
- בָּעַל bâalmarry, rule overtranslated this way 6 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H1166Verb · Translated: husband 4, marries 3, ruled 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Genesis 20:3 One night, however, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”
Deuteronomy 24:1 If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.
- אִשָּׁה ishshâhwoman, wife, femaletranslated this way 3 times of its 711 uses · Strong’s H802Noun · Translated: wife 251, woman 172, wives 92, women 88Full study and all 638 verses →
Numbers 36:11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, were married to cousins on their father’s side.
2 Kings 8:18 And Jehoram walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done. For he married a daughter of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the LORD.
- נָשָׂא nâsâlift, take, carrytranslated this way 3 times of its 642 uses · Strong’s H5375Verb · Translated: bear 49, lift 45, lifted 41, carried 38Full study and all 601 verses →
1 Chronicles 23:22 Eleazar died without having any sons; he had only daughters. Their cousins, the sons of Kish, married them.
2 Chronicles 13:21 But Abijah grew strong, married fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
Greek words (New Testament)
- γαμέω gaméōI marrytranslated this way 27 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s G1060Verb · Translated: marry 11, marries 7, married 4, marrying 2Full study and all 25 verses →
Matthew 5:32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Mark 6:17 For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married.
- λαμβάνω lambánōI receive, taketranslated this way 6 times of its 241 uses · Strong’s G2983Verb · Translated: receive 43, received 37, took 36, take 25Full study and all 227 verses →
Mark 12:19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.
Luke 20:28 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.
- γυνή gynḗa woman, wife, my ladytranslated this way 2 times of its 210 uses · Strong’s G1135Noun · Translated: woman 92, wife 66, women 32, wives 11Full study and all 192 verses →
Mark 12:23 In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.”
Luke 20:33 So then, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.”
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.