Word study
Satisfy
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: satisfied, satisfy, satisfies. 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 “satisfy” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׂבַע sâbabe sated, satisfied, surfeitedtranslated this way 52 times of its 97 uses · Strong’s H7646Verb · Translated: satisfied 39, filled 11, satisfy 10, fill 7Full study and all 93 verses →
Leviticus 26:26 When I cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in a single oven and dole out your bread by weight, so that you will eat but not be satisfied.
Deuteronomy 6:11 with houses full of every good thing with which you did not fill them, with wells that you did not dig, and with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant— and when you eat and are satisfied,
- יָטַב yâṭabbe good, well, glad, pleasingtranslated this way 3 times of its 110 uses · Strong’s H3190Verb · Translated: good 14, well 8, pleased 8, go well 6Full study and all 106 verses →
Leviticus 10:20 And when Moses heard this explanation, he was satisfied.
Joshua 22:30 When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation — the heads of Israel’s clans who were with him — heard what the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had to say, they were satisfied.
- מָלֵא mâlêbe full, filltranslated this way 3 times of its 242 uses · Strong’s H4390Verb · Translated: filled 66, full 34, fill 31, complete 8Full study and all 235 verses →
Job 38:39 Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions
Proverbs 6:30 Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger.
- יָדַע yâdaknowtranslated this way 2 times of its 914 uses · Strong’s H3045Verb · Translated: know 453, known 53, knows 48, knew 38Full study and all 863 verses →
- רָוָה râvâhbe saturated, drink one's filltranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H7301Verb · Translated: feast 1, soak 1, satisfy 1, take our fill 1Full study and all 14 verses →
Proverbs 5:19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
Isaiah 43:24 You have not bought Me sweet cane with your silver, nor satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened Me with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities.
- שׇׂבְעָה sobâhsatietytranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H7654Noun · Translated: abundant 1, satisfy 1, satisfied 1, gorged 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Isaiah 55:2 Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.
Ezekiel 16:28 Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied.
Greek words (New Testament)
- χορτάζω chortázōI feed, satisfytranslated this way 5 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s G5526Verb · Translated: satisfied 5, filled 3, feed 2, fill 2Full study and all 15 verses →
Matthew 14:20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Mark 6:42 They all ate and were satisfied,
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.