Word study

Obligate

1 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: obligated, obligate, obligates. 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 “obligate” or one of its forms.

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אָסַר âsartie, bind, imprisontranslated this way 2 times of its 66 uses · Strong’s H631Verb  ·  Translated: bound 16, tied 5, prisoners 4, confined 3

    Numbers 30:2 If a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised.

    Numbers 30:3 And if a woman in her father’s house during her youth makes a vow to the LORD or obligates herself by a pledge,

    Full study and all 62 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ὀφείλω opheílōI owe, oughttranslated this way 3 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s G3784Verb  ·  Translated: ought 9, should 4, owed 3, owe 3

    Romans 15:27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual blessings, they are obligated to minister to them with material blessings.

    2 Thessalonians 1:3 We are obligated to thank God for you all the time, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and your love for one another is increasing.

    Full study and all 34 verses →
  • ὀφειλέτης opheilétēsa debtor, sinnertranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G3781Noun  ·  Translated: obligated 2, debtors 1, debtor 1, sinful 1

    Romans 1:14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.

    Galatians 5:3 Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • ἀνάγκη anánkēnecessity, constraint, compulsiontranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s G318Noun  ·  Translated: necessary 4, must 2, need 2, distress 2

    1 Corinthians 9:16 Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

    Full study and all 17 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.

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.