Word study
Offend
3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: offended, offend. 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 “offend” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- חָטָא châṭâmisstranslated this way 1 time of its 233 uses · Strong’s H2398Verb · Translated: sinned 73, sin 33, committed 26, sins 21Full study and all 217 verses →
Genesis 40:1 Some time later, the king’s cupbearer and baker offended their master, the king of Egypt.
- פָּשַׁע pâsharebel, transgresstranslated this way 1 time of its 41 uses · Strong’s H6586Verb · Translated: rebelled 16, rebellion 6, transgressors 5, committed 2Full study and all 37 verses →
Proverbs 18:19 An offended brother is harder to win than a fortified city, and disputes are like the bars of a castle.
- חָבַל châbalbind, pledgetranslated this way 1 time of its 25 uses · Strong’s H2254Verb · Translated: destroy 3, security 2, broken 2, get collateral 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Job 34:31 Suppose someone says to God, ‘I have endured my punishment; I will offend no more.
Greek words (New Testament)
- σκανδαλίζω skandalízōI cause to stumbletranslated this way 3 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s G4624Verb · Translated: fall away 8, causes you to sin 7, causes 3, took offense 2Full study and all 27 verses →
Matthew 15:12 Then the disciples came to Him and said, “Are You aware that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”
John 6:61 Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this teaching , Jesus asked them, “Does this offend you?
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.