Word study

Neighbor

6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: neighbor, neighbors, neighboring. 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 “neighbor” 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)

  • רֵעַ rêashouting, roartranslated this way 89 times of its 185 uses · Strong’s H7453Noun  ·  Translated: neighbor 60, another 30, friend 26, neighbor's 22

    Exodus 20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

    Leviticus 19:13 You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.

    Full study and all 172 verses →
  • שָׁכֵן shâkêninhabitant, neighbourtranslated this way 18 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s H7934Noun  ·  Translated: neighbors 12, neighbor 4, neighboring peoples 1, resident 1

    Exodus 3:22 Every woman shall ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.”

    Deuteronomy 1:7 Resume your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the foothills, in the Negev, and along the seacoast to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great River Euphrates.

    Full study and all 20 verses →
  • עָמִית âmîthassociate, fellow, relationtranslated this way 8 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H5997Noun  ·  Translated: neighbor 7, neighbor's 1, another 1, him 1

    Leviticus 6:2 “If someone sins and acts unfaithfully against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in regard to a deposit or security entrusted to him or stolen, or if he extorts his neighbor

    Leviticus 19:15 You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • סָבִיב sâbîbcircuit, round abouttranslated this way 4 times of its 295 uses · Strong’s H5439Adverb  ·  Translated: around 151, side 31, surrounding 29, sides 16

    Deuteronomy 21:2 your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities.

    Ezra 1:6 And all their neighbors supported them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all their freewill offerings.

    Full study and all 268 verses →
  • אִישׁ îshmantranslated this way 2 times of its 1,399 uses · Strong’s H376Noun  ·  Translated: man 650, men 198, one 79, each 79Full study and all 1,278 verses →
  • קָרוֹב qârôbneartranslated this way 2 times of its 74 uses · Strong’s H7138Adjective  ·  Translated: near 38, nearest 4, nearby 3, next 2

    Exodus 32:27 He told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each of you men is to fasten his sword to his side, go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and slay his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’”

    Joshua 9:16 Three days after they had made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites learned that they were neighbors, living among them.

    Full study and all 72 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πλησίον plēsíonnear, nearby, a neighbortranslated this way 16 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s G4139Adverb  ·  Translated: neighbor 16, near 1

    Matthew 5:43 You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’

    Mark 12:31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

    Full study and all 17 verses →
  • γείτων geítōna neighbortranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G1069Noun  ·  Translated: neighbors 4

    Luke 14:12 Then Jesus said to the man who had invited Him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbors. Otherwise, they may invite you in return, and you will be repaid.

    John 9:8 At this, his neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging began to ask, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”

    Full study and all 4 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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 neighbor: 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.