Word study
Opponent
5 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: opponent, opponents. 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 “opponent” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רֵעַ rêashouting, roartranslated this way 2 times of its 185 uses · Strong’s H7453Noun · Translated: neighbor 60, another 30, friend 26, neighbor's 22Full study and all 172 verses →
2 Samuel 2:16 Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his sword into his opponent’s side, and they all fell together. So this place, which is in Gibeon, is called Helkath-hazzurim.
- אִישׁ îshmantranslated this way 1 time of its 1,399 uses · Strong’s H376Noun · Translated: man 650, men 198, one 79, each 79Full study and all 1,278 verses →
- קוּם qûmarise, stand up, standtranslated this way 1 time of its 594 uses · Strong’s H6965Verb · Translated: rise 68, got 61, set 44, Get 42Full study and all 570 verses →
- יָרִיב yârîbopponent, adversarytranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H3401Noun · Translated: opponents 1, contend 1, accusers 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Psalm 35:1 Of David. Contend with my opponents, O LORD; fight against those who fight against me.
- עָצוּם âtsûmmighty, numeroustranslated this way 1 time of its 31 uses · Strong’s H6099Adjective · Translated: mighty 6, powerful 5, strong 5, mightier 3Full study and all 31 verses →
Proverbs 18:18 Casting the lot ends quarrels and separates strong opponents.
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.