Word study
Promise
7 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: promised, promise, promises. 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 “promise” 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)
- דָבַר dâbarspeaktranslated this way 54 times of its 1,113 uses · Strong’s H1696Verb · Translated: speak 209, said 157, spoken 142, spoke 110Full study and all 1,025 verses →
Genesis 18:19 For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.”
Exodus 12:25 When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as He promised, you are to keep this service.
- דָּבָר dâbârspeech, wordtranslated this way 20 times of its 1,244 uses · Strong’s H1697Noun · Translated: word 342, words 299, acts 51, Chronicles 42Full study and all 1,120 verses →
Deuteronomy 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Joshua 21:45 Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel had failed; everything was fulfilled.
- אִמְרָה imrâhutterance, speech, wordtranslated this way 10 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H565Noun · Translated: word 15, words 4, according to your promise 4, promise 4Full study and all 35 verses →
Psalm 119:41 May Your loving devotion come to me, O LORD, Your salvation, according to Your promise.
Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in affliction, that Your promise has given me life.
- אָמַר âmarutter, saytranslated this way 9 times of its 4,555 uses · Strong’s H559Verb · Translated: said 1,531, says 576, say 352, replied 341Full study and all 3,827 verses →
Exodus 3:17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your affliction in Egypt, into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites— a land flowing with milk and honey.’
Exodus 32:13 Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”
- שָׁבַע shâbasweartranslated this way 5 times of its 185 uses · Strong’s H7650Verb · Translated: swore 43, sworn 32, swear 28, swore an oath 12Full study and all 175 verses →
Genesis 24:7 The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me from my father’s house and my native land, who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’— He will send His angel before you so that you can take a wife for my son from there.
Exodus 33:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’
- יָצָא yâtsâgo or come outtranslated this way 2 times of its 1,035 uses · Strong’s H3318Verb · Translated: brought 108, went 103, go 82, came 78Full study and all 975 verses →
Numbers 30:2 If a man makes a vow to the LORD or swears an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word; he must do everything he has promised.
Numbers 32:24 Build cities for your little ones and folds for your flocks, but do what you have promised.”
- מִבְטָא mibṭârash utterancetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4008Noun · Translated: rash promise 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Numbers 30:6 If a woman marries while under a vow or rash promise by which she has bound herself,
Numbers 30:8 But if her husband prohibits her when he hears of it, he nullifies the vow that binds her or the rash promise she has made, and the LORD will absolve her.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐπαγγελία epangelíaa promisetranslated this way 50 times of its 51 uses · Strong’s G1860Noun · Translated: promise 29, promised 12, promises 8, consent 1Full study and all 49 verses →
Luke 24:49 And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. But remain in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
Acts 1:4 And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss .
- ἐπαγγέλλω epangéllōI promise, professtranslated this way 12 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s G1861Verb · Translated: promised 9Full study and all 15 verses →
Mark 14:11 They were delighted to hear this, and they promised to give him money. So Judas began to look for an opportunity to betray Jesus.
Acts 7:5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child.
- προεπαγγέλλομαι proepangéllomaiI promise beforehandtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G4279Verb · Translated: promised beforehand 1, promised 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Romans 1:2 the gospel He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
2 Corinthians 9:5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you beforehand and make arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. This way, your gift will be prepared generously and not begrudgingly.
- ἐπάγγελμα epángelmaa promisetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1862Noun · Translated: promises 1, promise 1Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Peter 1:4 Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
2 Peter 3:13 But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
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.