Word study

Report

11 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: reported, report, reports, reporting. 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 “report” 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)

  • נָגַד nâgadbe conspicuoustranslated this way 46 times of its 360 uses · Strong’s H5046Verb  ·  Translated: tell 83, told 67, reported 31, declare 18

    Genesis 14:13 Then an escapee came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew. Now Abram was living near the Oaks of Mamre the Amorite, a brother of Eshcol and Aner, all of whom were bound by treaty to Abram.

    Exodus 16:22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much food — two omers per person — and all the leaders of the congregation came and reported this to Moses.

    Full study and all 339 verses →
  • אָמַר âmarutter, saytranslated this way 13 times of its 4,555 uses · Strong’s H559Verb  ·  Translated: said 1,531, says 576, say 352, replied 341Full study and all 3,827 verses →
  • דָּבָר dâbârspeech, wordtranslated this way 12 times of its 1,244 uses · Strong’s H1697Noun  ·  Translated: word 342, words 299, acts 51, Chronicles 42

    Numbers 13:26 and they went back to Moses, Aaron, and the whole congregation of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran at Kadesh. They brought back a report for the whole congregation and showed them the fruit of the land.

    Deuteronomy 17:4 and if it is reported and you hear about it, you must investigate it thoroughly. If the report is true and such an abomination has happened in Israel,

    Full study and all 1,120 verses →
  • שְׁמוּעָה shemûâhreporttranslated this way 7 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H8052Noun  ·  Translated: report 7, news 7, rumor 6, message 4

    1 Samuel 2:24 No, my sons; it is not a good report I hear circulating among the LORD’s people.

    2 Samuel 4:4 And Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the report about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she was hurrying to escape, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

    Full study and all 24 verses →
  • שֵׁמַע shêmasoundtranslated this way 6 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H8088Noun  ·  Translated: report 5, fame 4, news 3, hear 2

    Exodus 23:1 “You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.

    Deuteronomy 2:25 This very day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon all the nations under heaven. They will hear the reports of you and tremble in anguish because of you.”

    Full study and all 17 verses →
  • דִּבָּה dibbâhwhispering, defamation, evil reporttranslated this way 4 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H1681Noun  ·  Translated: slander 3, report 2, bad report 2, infamy 1

    Genesis 37:2 This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

    Numbers 13:32 So they gave the Israelites a bad report about the land that they had spied out: “The land we explored devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw there are great in stature.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • שׁוּב shûbturn back, returntranslated this way 3 times of its 1,007 uses · Strong’s H7725Verb  ·  Translated: return 218, returned 105, restore 62, turn 56Full study and all 920 verses →
  • שָׁמַע shâmaheartranslated this way 2 times of its 1,132 uses · Strong’s H8085Verb  ·  Translated: heard 311, hear 253, listen 218, obey 60Full study and all 1,063 verses →
  • נָתַן nâthangive, put, settranslated this way 2 times of its 1,957 uses · Strong’s H5414Verb  ·  Translated: give 326, gave 206, given 187, put 135Full study and all 1,785 verses →
  • דָבַר dâbarspeaktranslated this way 2 times of its 1,113 uses · Strong’s H1696Verb  ·  Translated: speak 209, said 157, spoken 142, spoke 110Full study and all 1,025 verses →
  • שֹׁמַע shômareporttranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H8089Noun  ·  Translated: fame 2, reports 1, report 1

    Joshua 9:9 “Your servants have come from a very distant land,” they replied, “because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard the reports about Him: all that He did in Egypt,

    Jeremiah 6:24 We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.

    Full study and all 4 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἀπαγγέλλω apangéllōI report, bring a report, announcetranslated this way 16 times of its 46 uses · Strong’s G518Verb  ·  Translated: reported 11, tell 7, told 6, report 5

    Matthew 2:8 And sending them to Bethlehem, he said: “Go and search carefully for the Child, and when you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him.”

    Mark 5:14 Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened.

    Full study and all 46 verses →
  • ἀναγγέλλω anangéllōI announce, make known, reporttranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G312Verb  ·  Translated: told 3, disclosing 2, reported 2, declaring 2

    Acts 14:27 When they arrived, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

    Acts 15:4 On their arrival in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and apostles and elders, to whom they reported all that God had done through them.

    Full study and all 14 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.