Word study

Prolong

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: prolong, prolonged, prolongs. 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 “prolong” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אָרַךְ ârakbe longtranslated this way 7 times of its 33 uses · Strong’s H748Verb  ·  Translated: prolong 6, live long 5, long 3, lingered 2

    Deuteronomy 5:33 You must walk in all the ways that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.

    1 Kings 3:14 So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days.”

    Full study and all 33 verses →
  • יָסַף yâsaphaddtranslated this way 2 times of its 202 uses · Strong’s H3254Verb  ·  Translated: again 36, add 23, longer 20, severely 12

    Proverbs 10:27 The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be cut short.

    Lamentations 4:22 O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete; He will not prolong your exile. But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom; He will expose your sins.

    Full study and all 198 verses →
  • אֹרֶךְ ôreklengthtranslated this way 1 time of its 91 uses · Strong’s H753Noun  ·  Translated: long 62, length 17

    Deuteronomy 30:20 and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

    Full study and all 89 verses →
  • מָשַׁךְ mâshakdraw, dragtranslated this way 1 time of its 34 uses · Strong’s H4900Verb  ·  Translated: draw 3, drew 2, tall 2, Extend 2

    Isaiah 13:22 Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.

    Full study and all 34 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.