Word study

Possibly

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “possibly”. 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 “possibly” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נָקָה nâqâhbe empty(?), cleantranslated this way 2 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H5352Verb  ·  Translated: go unpunished 10, leave anyone unpunished 2, leave the guilty unpunished 2, acquit 2

    Jeremiah 25:29 For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of Hosts.’

    Jeremiah 49:12 For this is what the LORD says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for you must drink it too.

    Full study and all 32 verses →
  • יָדַע yâdaknowtranslated this way 1 time of its 914 uses · Strong’s H3045Verb  ·  Translated: know 453, known 53, knows 48, knew 38

    Genesis 43:7 They replied, “The man questioned us in detail about ourselves and our family: ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ And we answered him accordingly. How could we possibly know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother here’?”

    Full study and all 863 verses →
  • חָלִילָה châlîlâhfar be ittranslated this way 1 time of its 21 uses · Strong’s H2486Interjection  ·  Translated: Far 14, forbid 3, Never 3, possibly 1

    Genesis 44:7 “Why does my lord say these things?” they asked. “Your servants could not possibly do such a thing.

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • פָּדָה pâdâhransomtranslated this way 1 time of its 54 uses · Strong’s H6299Verb  ·  Translated: redeemed 22, redeem 21, ransomed 2, redeems 2

    Psalm 49:7 No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.

    Full study and all 48 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • τάχα táchaquickly, perhapstranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G5029Adverb  ·  Translated: possibly 1, perhaps 1

    Romans 5:7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.

    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.