Word study

Protect

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: protect, protects, protected. 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 “protect” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • שָׁמַר shâmarkeep, watch, preservetranslated this way 14 times of its 461 uses · Strong’s H8104Verb  ·  Translated: keep 133, careful 39, kept 33, guard 25

    Exodus 23:20 Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.

    Joshua 24:17 For the LORD our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us throughout our journey and among all the nations through which we traveled.

    Full study and all 436 verses →
  • שָׂגַב sâgabbetranslated this way 4 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s H7682Verb  ·  Translated: exalted 6, protect 4, high 2, lofty 2

    Psalm 20:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you.

    Psalm 59:1 For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A Miktam of David, when Saul sent men to watch David’s house in order to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise against me.

    Full study and all 20 verses →
  • נָצַל nâtsalstrip, plundertranslated this way 3 times of its 205 uses · Strong’s H5337Verb  ·  Translated: deliver 75, delivered 34, rescue 30, rescued 9

    Numbers 35:25 The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

    Deuteronomy 23:14 For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.

    Full study and all 191 verses →
  • נָצַר nâtsarwatch, guard, keeptranslated this way 2 times of its 59 uses · Strong’s H5341Verb  ·  Translated: keep 10, guard 9, obey 7, preserve 5

    Psalm 32:7 You are my hiding place. You protect me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

    Psalm 140:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men. Protect me from men of violence,

    Full study and all 58 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • τηρέω tēréōI keep, guard, observetranslated this way 3 times of its 69 uses · Strong’s G5083Verb  ·  Translated: keep 23, kept 12, keeps 7, held 4

    John 17:11 I will no longer be in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, protect them by Your name, the name You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one.

    1 John 5:18 We know that anyone born of God does not keep on sinning; the One who was born of God protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him.

    Full study and all 63 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.