Word study
Ripe
8 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “ripe”. 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 “ripe” 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)
- טוֹב ṭôbpleasant, agreeable, goodtranslated this way 6 times of its 538 uses · Strong’s H2896Adjective · Translated: good 249, better 72, prosperity 19, good things 12Full study and all 499 verses →
Genesis 25:8 And at a ripe old age he breathed his last and died, old and contented, and was gathered to his people.
Judges 8:32 Later, Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
- בִּכּוּר bikkûrfirst-fruitstranslated this way 2 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H1061Noun · Translated: firstfruits 12, first ripe 1, first 1, first ripe figs 1Full study and all 15 verses →
Numbers 13:20 Is the soil fertile or unproductive? Are there trees in it or not? Be courageous and bring back some of the fruit of the land.” (It was the season for the first ripe grapes.)
Nahum 3:12 All your fortresses are fig trees with the first ripe figs; when shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater!
- שֵׂיבָה sêbâhhoary head, old agetranslated this way 1 time of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7872Noun · Translated: old age 5, gray hair 3, gray 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Genesis 15:15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.
- מָלֵא mâlêfulltranslated this way 1 time of its 64 uses · Strong’s H4392Adjective · Translated: full 27, filled 27Full study and all 63 verses →
Genesis 41:7 And the thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven plump, ripe ones. Then Pharaoh awoke and realized it was a dream.
- פִּשְׁתָּה pishtâhflaxtranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H6594Noun · Translated: flax 1, ripe and the flax 1, wick 1, like a wick 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Exodus 9:31 (Now the flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was ripe and the flax was in bloom;
- כַּרְמֶל karmelplantation, garden-landtranslated this way 1 time of its 16 uses · Strong’s H3759Noun · Translated: orchard 6Full study and all 14 verses →
2 Kings 4:42 Now a man from Baal-shalishah came to the man of God with a sack of twenty loaves of barley bread from the first ripe grain. “Give it to the people to eat,” said Elisha.
- בִּכּוּרָה bikkûrâhfirst ripe fig, early figtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H1063Noun · Translated: like a ripe fig 1, firstfruits 1, early fig 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Isaiah 28:4 The fading flower of his beautiful splendor, set on the summit above the fertile valley, will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest: Whoever sees it will take it in his hand and swallow it.
- בָּשַׁל bâshalboil, seethetranslated this way 1 time of its 27 uses · Strong’s H1310Verb · Translated: cook 6, boiled 6, boil 5, cooked 3Full study and all 24 verses →
Joel 3:13 Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great.
Greek words (New Testament)
- παραδίδωμι paradídōmiI hand over, deliver, betraytranslated this way 1 time of its 119 uses · Strong’s G3860Verb · Translated: betray 19, handed 19, delivered 10, hand 9Full study and all 117 verses →
Mark 4:29 And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
- λευκός leukóswhite, brighttranslated this way 1 time of its 25 uses · Strong’s G3022Adjective · Translated: white 24, ripe 1Full study and all 23 verses →
John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.
- ξηραίνω xēraínōI dry up, parch, ripentranslated this way 1 time of its 15 uses · Strong’s G3583Verb · Translated: withered 7, withers 3Full study and all 15 verses →
Revelation 14:15 Then another angel came out of the temple, crying out in a loud voice to the One seated on the cloud, “Swing Your sickle and reap, because the time has come to harvest, for the crop of the earth is ripe.”
- ἀκμάζω akmázōI reach maturity, become ripetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G187Verb · Translated: ripe 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Revelation 14:18 Still another angel, with authority over the fire, came from the altar and called out in a loud voice to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the vine of the earth, because its grapes are ripe.”
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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.