Word study
Recount
3 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: recount, recounted, recounting. 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 “recount” 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)
- סָפַר sâpharcounttranslated this way 6 times of its 154 uses · Strong’s H5608Verb · Translated: scribe 41, count 19, told 15, declare 13Full study and all 150 verses →
Exodus 18:8 Then Moses recounted to his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships they had encountered along the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.
Esther 5:11 Haman recounted to them his glorious wealth, his many sons, and all the ways the king had honored and promoted him over the other officials and servants.
- תָּנָה tânâhascribe, celebrate, commemoratetranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8567Verb · Translated: recount 1, lament 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Judges 5:11 the voices of the singers at the watering places. There they shall recount the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous deeds of His villagers in Israel. Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates:
- שִׂיחַ sîachmuse, complaintranslated this way 1 time of its 20 uses · Strong’s H7878Verb · Translated: meditate 6, ponder 2, tell 2, speak 2Full study and all 20 verses →
Isaiah 53:8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.
Greek words (New Testament)
- διασαφέω diasaphéōI make clear, explaintranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1285Verb · Translated: Explain 1, recounted 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 18:31 When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and recounted all of this to their master.
- ἐξηγέομαι exēgéomaiI explain, make declarationtranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s G1834Verb · Translated: told 2, made 1, explained 1, describing 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Acts 21:19 Paul greeted them and recounted one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
- διηγέομαι diēgéomaiI relate in full, describetranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s G1334Verb · Translated: described 3, tell anyone 1, describe 1, reported 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Acts 8:33 In His humiliation He was deprived of justice. Who can recount His descendants? For His life was removed from the earth.”
- ἐκδιηγέομαι ekdiēgéomaiI narrate at length, declaretranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1555Verb · Translated: told 1, recounting 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Acts 15:3 Sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, recounting the conversion of the Gentiles and bringing great joy to all the brothers.
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.