Word study

Relation

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • יָדַע yâdaknowtranslated this way 14 times of its 914 uses · Strong’s H3045Verb  ·  Translated: know 453, known 53, knows 48, knew 38

    Genesis 4:1 And Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man,” she said.

    Numbers 31:17 So now, kill all the boys, as well as every woman who has had relations with a man,

    Full study and all 863 verses →
  • גָּלָה gâlâhuncover, removetranslated this way 11 times of its 170 uses · Strong’s H1540Verb  ·  Translated: revealed 14, uncovered 13, exiled 12, sexual relations 11

    Leviticus 18:6 None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.

    Leviticus 18:7 You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.

    Full study and all 161 verses →
  • עֶרְוָה ervâhnakedness, pudendatranslated this way 8 times of its 37 uses · Strong’s H6172Noun  ·  Translated: nakedness 16, sexual relations 8, shame 3, vulnerable 2

    Leviticus 18:8 You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father.

    Leviticus 18:11 You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.

    Full study and all 34 verses →
  • בּוֹא bôcome in, come, go in, gotranslated this way 4 times of its 2,442 uses · Strong’s H935Verb  ·  Translated: come 358, came 298, bring 209, brought 201

    Genesis 6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days— and afterward as well— when the sons of God had relations with the daughters of men. And they bore them children who became the mighty men of old, men of renown.

    Full study and all 2,217 verses →
  • קָרַב qârabcome near, approachtranslated this way 2 times of its 276 uses · Strong’s H7126Verb  ·  Translated: present 65, bring 18, approached 16, presented 14

    Deuteronomy 22:14 and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.”

    Isaiah 8:3 And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

    Full study and all 258 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • χρῆσις chrēsisusage, usetranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G5540Noun  ·  Translated: relations 2

    Romans 1:26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.

    Romans 1:27 Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

    Full study and all 2 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.