Word study

Respect

2 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: respect, respected, respects. 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 “respect” 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)

  • כָּבַד kâbadbe heavy, weighty, burdensome, honouredtranslated this way 4 times of its 109 uses · Strong’s H3513Verb  ·  Translated: honor 19, honored 11, heavy 10, hardened 6

    Genesis 34:19 The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter.

    1 Samuel 9:6 “Look,” said the servant, “in this city there is a man of God who is highly respected; everything he says surely comes to pass. Let us go there now. Perhaps he will tell us which way to go.”

    Full study and all 105 verses →
  • יָדַע yâdaknowtranslated this way 2 times of its 914 uses · Strong’s H3045Verb  ·  Translated: know 453, known 53, knows 48, knew 38

    Deuteronomy 1:13 Choose for yourselves wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.”

    Deuteronomy 1:15 So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them as leaders over you — as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and as officers for your tribes.

    Full study and all 863 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἐντρέπω entrépōI turn to confusion, put to shame, reverencetranslated this way 6 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G1788Verb  ·  Translated: respect 4, respected 2, ashamed 2, shame 1

    Matthew 21:37 Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

    Mark 12:6 Finally, having one beloved son, he sent him to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • φόβος phóbosfear, terror, reverencetranslated this way 5 times of its 45 uses · Strong’s G5401Noun  ·  Translated: fear 29, respect 5, awe 2, sense of awe 2

    Romans 13:7 Pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

    Ephesians 6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.

    Full study and all 42 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.

What the Bible says about respect: passages by topic →

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.