Word study
Prosper
7 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: prosper, prospered, prospers, prospering. 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 “prosper” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- צָלַח tsâlachrushtranslated this way 22 times of its 65 uses · Strong’s H6743Verb · Translated: prosper 13, succeed 8, success 5, prospered 5Full study and all 64 verses →
Genesis 39:3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and made him prosper in all he did,
Deuteronomy 28:29 and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.
- יָטַב yâṭabbe good, well, glad, pleasingtranslated this way 10 times of its 110 uses · Strong’s H3190Verb · Translated: good 14, well 8, pleased 8, go well 6Full study and all 106 verses →
Genesis 32:9 Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’
Deuteronomy 4:40 Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.
- שָׂכַל sâkalbe prudenttranslated this way 8 times of its 61 uses · Strong’s H7919Verb · Translated: wise 11, prosper 5, understand 5, prospered 3Full study and all 61 verses →
Deuteronomy 29:9 So keep and follow the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all you do.
Joshua 1:7 Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.
- דָּשֵׁן dâshênbe fat, grow fattranslated this way 3 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H1878Verb · Translated: prosper 3Full study and all 11 verses →
Deuteronomy 31:20 When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant.
Proverbs 11:25 A generous soul will prosper, and he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
- שָׁלוֹם shâlômcompleteness, soundness, welfare, peacetranslated this way 3 times of its 223 uses · Strong’s H7965Noun · Translated: peace 135, safely 10, prosperity 8, well 5Full study and all 200 verses →
Jeremiah 29:7 Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
- נָשַׂג nâsagreach, overtaketranslated this way 3 times of its 47 uses · Strong’s H5381Verb · Translated: overtake 16, overtook 6, afford 6, prospers 3Full study and all 45 verses →
Leviticus 25:26 Or if a man has no one to redeem it for him, but he prospers and acquires enough to redeem his land,
Leviticus 25:47 If a foreigner residing among you prospers, but your countryman dwelling near him becomes destitute and sells himself to the foreigner or to a member of his clan,
- צְלַח tselachprospertranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H6744Verb · Translated: prospered 2, prospering 1, promoted 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Ezra 5:8 Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. The people are rebuilding it with large stones and placing timbers in the walls. This work is being carried out diligently and is prospering in their hands.
Daniel 6:28 So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
Greek words (New Testament)
- εὐοδόω euodóōI cause to prosper, have a happy journeytranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G2137Verb · Translated: succeed 1, income 1, prosper 1, prospers 1Full study and all 3 verses →
3 John 1:2 Beloved, I pray that in every way you may prosper and enjoy good health, as your soul also prospers.
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.