Word study

Restrain

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: restrained, restrain, restrains, restraining. 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 “restrain” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • חָשַׂךְ châsakwithhold, refraintranslated this way 7 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H2820Verb  ·  Translated: withheld 3, restrained 3, restrain 2, restrains 2

    1 Samuel 25:39 On hearing that Nabal was dead, David said, “Blessed be the LORD, who has upheld my cause against the reproach of Nabal and has restrained His servant from evil. For the LORD has brought the wickedness of Nabal down upon his own head.” Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.

    2 Samuel 18:16 Then Joab blew the ram’s horn, and the troops broke off their pursuit of Israel because Joab had restrained them.

    Full study and all 27 verses →
  • אָפַק âphaqhold, be strongtranslated this way 4 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H662Verb  ·  Translated: restrained 3, Regaining his composure 1, control 1, felt compelled 1

    Esther 5:10 Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. And calling for his friends and his wife Zeresh,

    Isaiah 42:14 “I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • כָּלָא kâlâshut up, restrain, withholdtranslated this way 3 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H3607Verb  ·  Translated: restrained 3, withhold 2, kept 2, imprisoned 2

    Genesis 8:2 The springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained.

    Exodus 36:6 After Moses had given an order, they sent a proclamation throughout the camp: “No man or woman should make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing more,

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • שָׁמַר shâmarkeep, watch, preservetranslated this way 2 times of its 461 uses · Strong’s H8104Verb  ·  Translated: keep 133, careful 39, kept 33, guard 25

    Exodus 21:29 But if the ox has a habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or woman, then the ox must be stoned and its owner must also be put to death.

    Exodus 21:36 But if it was known that the ox had a habit of goring, yet its owner failed to restrain it, he shall pay full compensation, ox for ox, and the dead animal will be his.’’

    Full study and all 436 verses →
  • שׁוּב shûbturn back, returntranslated this way 2 times of its 1,007 uses · Strong’s H7725Verb  ·  Translated: return 218, returned 105, restore 62, turn 56Full study and all 920 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.