Word study
Safety
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “safety”. 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 “safety” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- בֶּטַח beṭachsecuritytranslated this way 8 times of its 39 uses · Strong’s H983Noun · Translated: securely 21, safety 8, unsuspecting 2, secure 2Full study and all 38 verses →
Leviticus 25:19 Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.
Job 11:18 You will be secure, because there is hope, and you will look around and lie down in safety.
- שָׁלוֹם shâlômcompleteness, soundness, welfare, peacetranslated this way 3 times of its 223 uses · Strong’s H7965Noun · Translated: peace 135, safely 10, prosperity 8, well 5Full study and all 200 verses →
1 Samuel 20:13 But if my father intends to bring evil on you, then may the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if I do not tell you and send you on your way in safety. May the LORD be with you, just as He has been with my father.
2 Chronicles 15:5 In those days there was no safety for travelers, because the residents of the lands had many conflicts.
- יֶשַׁע yeshadeliverance, rescue, salvationtranslated this way 3 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H3468Noun · Translated: salvation 30, safety 3, saving 1, Savior 1Full study and all 35 verses →
Job 5:4 His sons are far from safety, crushed in court without a defender.
Psalm 12:5 “For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”
- עָרַב ârabtake on pledge, give in pledge, exchangetranslated this way 1 time of its 22 uses · Strong’s H6148Verb · Translated: puts up security 3, make a bargain 2, posts security 2Full study and all 22 verses →
Genesis 43:9 I will guarantee his safety. You may hold me personally responsible. If I do not bring him back and set him before you, then may I bear the guilt before you all my life.
- נַעַר naara shaking, scatteringtranslated this way 1 time of its 227 uses · Strong’s H5288Noun · Translated: boy 48, young men 30, young man 27, servant 25Full study and all 214 verses →
Genesis 44:32 Indeed, your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father, saying, ‘If I do not return him to you, I will bear the guilt before you, my father, all my life.’
- עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 1 time of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb · Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35Full study and all 487 verses →
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.