Word study

Remain

21 Hebrew and 9 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: remain, remained, remains, remaining. 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 “remain” 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)

  • שָׁאַר shâarremain, be left overtranslated this way 44 times of its 126 uses · Strong’s H7604Verb  ·  Translated: left 24, remained 19, remain 15, survive 8

    Genesis 7:23 And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed — man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained.

    Exodus 8:11 The frogs will depart from you and your houses and your officials and your people; they will remain only in the Nile.”

    Full study and all 118 verses →
  • הָיָה hâyâhfall out, come to pass, become, betranslated this way 38 times of its 2,848 uses · Strong’s H1961Verb  ·  Translated: will be 206, become 178, came 169, was 151Full study and all 2,573 verses →
  • יָתַר yâtharremain overtranslated this way 31 times of its 106 uses · Strong’s H3498Verb  ·  Translated: left 24, rest 12, remaining 11, remainder 8

    Exodus 28:10 six of their names on one stone and the remaining six on the other, in the order of their birth.

    Leviticus 7:17 But any meat of the sacrifice remaining until the third day must be burned up.

    Full study and all 100 verses →
  • יָשַׁב yâshabsit, remain, dwelltranslated this way 30 times of its 1,049 uses · Strong’s H3427Verb  ·  Translated: lived 103, dwell 89, live 84, sit 70

    Genesis 24:55 But her brother and mother said, “Let the girl remain with us ten days or so. After that, she may go.”

    Exodus 23:33 They must not remain in your land, lest they cause you to sin against Me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.”

    Full study and all 960 verses →
  • עָמַד âmadtake one's stand, standtranslated this way 15 times of its 508 uses · Strong’s H5975Verb  ·  Translated: stood 99, stand 95, standing 50, stands 12

    Exodus 33:9 As Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and remain at the entrance, and the LORD would speak with Moses.

    Leviticus 13:23 But if the spot remains unchanged and does not spread, it is only the scar from the boil, and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

    Full study and all 485 verses →
  • חָרַשׁ chârashcut in, engrave, plough, devisetranslated this way 8 times of its 69 uses · Strong’s H2790Verb  ·  Translated: silent 11, plow 6, plowed 5, quiet 5

    Genesis 34:5 Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent about it until they returned.

    2 Kings 18:36 But the people remained silent and did not answer a word, for Hezekiah had commanded, “Do not answer him.”

    Full study and all 65 verses →
  • לוּן lûnlodge, pass the nighttranslated this way 6 times of its 80 uses · Strong’s H3885Verb  ·  Translated: spend the night 17, spent the night 7, grumbled 7, remain 6

    Exodus 23:18 You must not offer the blood of My sacrifices with anything leavened, nor may the fat of My feast remain until morning.

    Deuteronomy 16:4 No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.

    Full study and all 76 verses →
  • שָׁכַן shâkansettle down, abide, dwelltranslated this way 5 times of its 129 uses · Strong’s H7931Verb  ·  Translated: dwell 45, dwelling 9, settle 8, settled 7

    Numbers 9:18 At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at the LORD’s command they camped. As long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, they remained encamped.

    Judges 5:17 Gilead remained beyond the Jordan. Dan, why did you linger by the ships? Asher stayed at the coast and remained in his harbors.

    Full study and all 124 verses →
  • טָמֵא ṭâmêbe or become uncleantranslated this way 5 times of its 158 uses · Strong’s H2930Verb  ·  Translated: unclean 47, defiled 38, defile 23, pronounce him unclean 10

    Leviticus 11:32 When one of them dies and falls on something, that article becomes unclean; any article of wood, clothing, leather, sackcloth, or any implement used for work must be rinsed with water and will remain unclean until evening; then it will be clean.

    Leviticus 13:46 As long as he has the infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp.

    Full study and all 141 verses →
  • עוֹד ôda going round, continuancetranslated this way 4 times of its 390 uses · Strong’s H5750Adverb  ·  Translated: longer 80, still 63, again 52, more 38

    Genesis 18:22 And the two men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.

    Leviticus 25:51 If many years remain, he must pay for his redemption in proportion to his purchase price.

    Full study and all 372 verses →
  • יֶתֶר yetherremainder, excellence, excesstranslated this way 3 times of its 97 uses · Strong’s H3499Noun  ·  Translated: rest 64, remnant 6, bowstrings 3, left 3

    Leviticus 14:17 And the priest is to put some of the oil remaining in his palm on the right earlobe of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering.

    Numbers 31:32 and this plunder remained from the spoils the soldiers had taken: 675,000 sheep,

    Full study and all 93 verses →
  • שָׁמַר shâmarkeep, watch, preservetranslated this way 3 times of its 461 uses · Strong’s H8104Verb  ·  Translated: keep 133, careful 39, kept 33, guard 25Full study and all 436 verses →
  • עַד adas far as, even to, up to, until, whiletranslated this way 3 times of its 1,111 uses · Strong’s H5704Preposition  ·  Translated: until 348, to 278, far 48, forever 43Full study and all 1,024 verses →
  • חָנָה chânâhdecline, bend down, encamptranslated this way 2 times of its 141 uses · Strong’s H2583Verb  ·  Translated: camped 90, camp 18, encamped 11, laid siege 4

    Numbers 9:18 At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at the LORD’s command they camped. As long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, they remained encamped.

    Numbers 31:19 All of you who have killed a person or touched the dead are to remain outside the camp for seven days. On the third day and the seventh day you are to purify both yourselves and your captives.

    Full study and all 135 verses →
  • חָיָה châyâhlivetranslated this way 2 times of its 265 uses · Strong’s H2421Verb  ·  Translated: live 96, lived 24, was 17, revive 14

    Numbers 14:38 Of those men who had gone to spy out the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh remained alive.

    Full study and all 254 verses →
  • לֹא lônottranslated this way 2 times of its 4,657 uses · Strong’s H3808Adverb  ·  Translated: no 309, not 269, never 218, will not 156Full study and all 3,775 verses →
  • חָשָׁה châshâhbe silent, inactive, stilltranslated this way 2 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H2814Verb  ·  Translated: silent 4, keep silent 3, speak 2

    Psalm 28:1 Of David. To You, O LORD, I call; be not deaf to me, O my Rock. For if You remain silent, I will be like those descending to the Pit.

    Psalm 39:2 I was speechless and still; I remained silent, even from speaking good, and my sorrow was stirred.

    Full study and all 15 verses →
  • עַל alheighttranslated this way 2 times of its 4,859 uses · Strong’s H5921Preposition  ·  Translated: on 777, over 297, in 218, against 216Full study and all 3,996 verses →
  • עֲדַף ădaphremain over, be in excesstranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H5736Verb  ·  Translated: excess 4, remains 2, left 1, balance 1Full study and all 8 verses →
  • שָׂרִיד sârîdsurvivortranslated this way 2 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H8300Noun  ·  Translated: survivors 13, survivor 5, remaining 2, survived 2Full study and all 27 verses →
  • שְׁאָר sheârremain, be left overtranslated this way 2 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H7605Noun  ·  Translated: rest 11, remnant 10, remaining 2, other 1Full study and all 25 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

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.