Word study
Match
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: match, matched, matching, matches. 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 “match” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- נָשַׂג nâsagreach, overtaketranslated this way 1 time of its 47 uses · Strong’s H5381Verb · Translated: overtake 16, overtook 6, afford 6, prospers 3Full study and all 45 verses →
Genesis 47:9 “My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”
- יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 1 time of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun · Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72Full study and all 1,744 verses →
- מֵאָה mêâhhundredtranslated this way 1 time of its 292 uses · Strong’s H3967Number · Translated: hundred 137, hundreds 26, two hundred 17, 120 6Full study and all 263 verses →
1 Chronicles 12:14 These Gadites were army commanders, the least of whom was a match for a hundred, and the greatest for a thousand.
- 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 →
- מִשְׁנֶה mishnehdouble, copy, secondtranslated this way 1 time of its 34 uses · Strong’s H4932Noun · Translated: second 11, double 4, Second District 4, twice 2Full study and all 33 verses →
Ezra 1:10 30 gold bowls, 410 matching silver bowls, and 1,000 other articles.
- יִרְאָה yirâhfeartranslated this way 1 time of its 43 uses · Strong’s H3374Noun · Translated: fear 34, reverence 4Full study and all 43 verses →
Psalm 90:11 Who knows the power of Your anger? Your wrath matches the fear You are due.
Greek words (New Testament)
- συμφωνέω symphōnéōI agree withtranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s G4856Verb · Translated: agree 4, agreed 1, match 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Luke 5:36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will tear the new garment as well, and the patch from the new will not match the old.
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.