Word study
Native
4 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: native, natives. 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 “native” 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)
- אֶזְרָח ezrâcha nativetranslated this way 10 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H249Noun · Translated: native 8, native-born 6, like a native 1, citizens alike 1Full study and all 17 verses →
Exodus 12:19 For seven days there must be no leaven found in your houses. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreigner or native of the land, must be cut off from the congregation of Israel.
Leviticus 16:29 This is to be a permanent statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall humble yourselves and not do any work — whether the native or the foreigner who resides among you —
- מוֹלֶדֶת môledethnativity, lineage, native countrytranslated this way 4 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H4138Noun · Translated: kindred 5, birth 5, native 4, born 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Genesis 11:28 During his father Terah’s lifetime, Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans.
Jeremiah 22:10 Do not weep for him who is dead; do not mourn his loss. Weep bitterly for him who is exiled, for he will never return to see his native land.
- אֶרֶץ eretsearth, landtranslated this way 1 time of its 2,375 uses · Strong’s H776Noun · Translated: land 1,483, earth 564, ground 119, lands 41Full study and all 2,120 verses →
- אֱנוֹשׁ ĕnôshman, mankindtranslated this way 1 time of its 470 uses · Strong’s H582Noun · Translated: men 368, man 25, people 5, husbands 4Full study and all 447 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- γένος génosoffspring, family, race, kindtranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s G1085Noun · Translated: people 3, offspring 3, family 2, native 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Acts 18:2 There he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to visit them,
Acts 18:24 Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, well versed in the Scriptures.
- ἴδιος ídiosone's own, private, personaltranslated this way 1 time of its 95 uses · Strong’s G2398Adjective · Translated: own 53, privately 10, his own 9, themselves 3Full study and all 91 verses →
John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
- γεννάω gennáōI beget, bring forth, give birth totranslated this way 1 time of its 96 uses · Strong’s G1080Verb · Translated: father 39, born 37, become your father 3Full study and all 65 verses →
Acts 2:8 How is it then that each of us hears them in his own native language?
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.