Word study
Merry
3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “merry”. 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 “merry” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- טוֹב ṭôbpleasing, goodtranslated this way 3 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H2895Verb · Translated: merry 3, done well 3, better 2, good 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Judges 16:25 And while their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison to entertain them. And they stationed him between the pillars.
2 Samuel 13:28 Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”
- שָׂמַח sâmachrejoice, be gladtranslated this way 3 times of its 152 uses · Strong’s H8055Verb · Translated: rejoice 50, glad 27, rejoiced 20, gloat 6Full study and all 147 verses →
Job 21:12 singing to the tambourine and lyre and making merry at the sound of the flute.
Ecclesiastes 8:15 So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry. For this joy will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.
- יָטַב yâṭabbe good, well, glad, pleasingtranslated this way 2 times of its 110 uses · Strong’s H3190Verb · Translated: good 14, well 8, pleased 8, go well 6Full study and all 106 verses →
Judges 19:6 So they sat down and the two of them ate and drank together. Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Please agree to stay overnight and let your heart be merry.”
Judges 19:9 When the man got up to depart with his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, the day is drawing to a close. Please spend the night. See, the day is almost over. Spend the night here, that your heart may be merry. Then you can get up early tomorrow for your journey home.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- εὐφραίνω euphraínōI cheer, am glad, make merrytranslated this way 1 time of its 14 uses · Strong’s G2165Verb · Translated: celebrate 5, Rejoice 4Full study and all 14 verses →
Luke 12:19 Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!”’
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.