Word study

Play

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: play, played, playing, plays. 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 “play” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נָגַן nâgantouchtranslated this way 11 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H5059Verb  ·  Translated: play 5, played 2, harpist 2

    1 Samuel 16:16 Let our lord command your servants here to seek out someone who can skillfully play the harp. Whenever the spirit of distress from God is upon you, he is to play it, and you will be well.”

    2 Kings 3:15 But now, bring me a harpist.” And while the harpist played, the hand of the LORD came upon Elisha

    Full study and all 12 verses →
  • זָנָה zânâhcommit fornication, be a harlottranslated this way 6 times of its 89 uses · Strong’s H2181Verb  ·  Translated: prostitute 29, prostituted 16, prostitutes 7, harlot 5

    Jeremiah 3:1 “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers — and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.

    Ezekiel 16:15 But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking.

    Full study and all 81 verses →
  • נֶבֶל nebelskin-bottle, skintranslated this way 2 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H5035Noun  ·  Translated: harps 13, harp 8, skin 3, play the harps 2

    1 Chronicles 15:20 Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah, and Benaiah were to play the harps according to Alamoth.

    1 Chronicles 16:5 Asaph was the chief, Zechariah was second, then Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-edom, and Jeiel. They were to play the harps and lyres, while Asaph sounded the cymbals

    Full study and all 35 verses →
  • שָׂחַק sâchaqlaughtranslated this way 2 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H7832Verb  ·  Translated: laugh 5, laughs 5, celebrating 3, mock 3

    Job 40:20 The hills yield him their produce, while all the beasts of the field play nearby.

    Zechariah 8:5 And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”

    Full study and all 36 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • αὐλέω auléōI play the flute, pipetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G832Verb  ·  Translated: played the flute 2

    Matthew 11:17 ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’

    Luke 7:32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another: ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’

    Full study and all 2 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.