Word study
Pretend
5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: pretend, pretended, pretends, pretending. 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 “pretend” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- חָלָה châlâhbe weak, sicktranslated this way 1 time of its 75 uses · Strong’s H2470Verb · Translated: ill 8, sick 8, grievous 5, sought 4Full study and all 73 verses →
2 Samuel 13:5 Jonadab told him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend you are ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare it in my sight so I may watch her and eat it from her hand.’”
- אָבַל âbalmourntranslated this way 1 time of its 39 uses · Strong’s H56Verb · Translated: mourn 11, mourns 8, mourned 7, mourning 4Full study and all 38 verses →
2 Samuel 14:2 So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.
- שָׁנָה shânâhchangetranslated this way 1 time of its 22 uses · Strong’s H8138Verb · Translated: change 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Psalm 34:1 Of David, when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, so that the king drove him away. I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips.
- עָשַׁר âsharbe or become richtranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H6238Verb · Translated: rich 5Full study and all 17 verses →
Proverbs 13:7 One pretends to be rich, but has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
- רוּשׁ rûshbe in want, poortranslated this way 1 time of its 24 uses · Strong’s H7326Verb · Translated: poor 15, poor man 5, go lacking 1, oppressed 1Full study and all 24 verses →
Proverbs 13:7 One pretends to be rich, but has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὑποκρίνομαι hypokrínomaiI act the part, pretendtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G5271Verb · Translated: pretended 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Luke 20:20 So they watched Him closely and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They were hoping to catch Him in His words in order to hand Him over to the rule and authority of the governor.
- πρόφασις próphasisa pretext, an excusetranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s G4392Noun · Translated: show 2, excuse 1, Pretending 1, false motives 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Acts 27:30 Meanwhile, the sailors attempted to escape from the ship. Pretending to lower anchors from the bow, they let the lifeboat down into the sea.
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.