Word study
Save
7 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: save, saved, saves, saving. 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 “save” 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)
- יָשַׁע yâshadelivertranslated this way 157 times of its 203 uses · Strong’s H3467Verb · Translated: save 98, saved 40, saves 13, Savior 12Full study and all 198 verses →
Exodus 14:30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore.
Numbers 10:9 When you enter into battle in your land against an adversary who attacks you, sound short blasts on the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God and saved from your enemies.
- חָיָה châyâhlivetranslated this way 10 times of its 265 uses · Strong’s H2421Verb · Translated: live 96, lived 24, was 17, revive 14Full study and all 254 verses →
Genesis 19:20 Look, there is a town nearby where I can flee, and it is a small place. Please let me flee there — is it not a small place? Then my life will be saved.”
Deuteronomy 4:42 to which a manslayer could flee after killing his neighbor unintentionally without prior malice. To save one’s own life, he could flee to one of these cities:
- מָלַט mâlaṭslip awaytranslated this way 9 times of its 93 uses · Strong’s H4422Verb · Translated: escaped 22, escape 20, deliver 6, delivered 5Full study and all 85 verses →
2 Samuel 19:5 Then Joab went into the house and said to the king, “Today you have disgraced all your servants who have saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, of your wives, and of your concubines.
1 Kings 1:12 Now please, come and let me advise you. Save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.
- נָצַל nâtsalstrip, plundertranslated this way 7 times of its 205 uses · Strong’s H5337Verb · Translated: deliver 75, delivered 34, rescue 30, rescued 9Full study and all 191 verses →
Psalm 82:4 Rescue the weak and needy; save them from the hand of the wicked.
Proverbs 14:25 A truthful witness saves lives, but one who utters lies is deceitful.
- פָּלַט pâlaṭescapetranslated this way 2 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H6403Verb · Translated: deliverer 5, deliver 5, delivered 4, delivers 2Full study and all 24 verses →
Psalm 31:1 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. In You, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; save me by Your righteousness.
Micah 6:14 You will eat but not be satisfied, and your hunger will remain with you. What you acquire, you will not preserve; and what you save, I will give to the sword.
- יְשׁוּעָה yeshûâhsalvationtranslated this way 2 times of its 78 uses · Strong’s H3444Noun · Translated: salvation 67, Savior 2Full study and all 77 verses →
Psalm 22:1 For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
Psalm 80:2 before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Rally Your mighty power and come to save us.
- יֶשַׁע yeshadeliverance, rescue, salvationtranslated this way 2 times of its 36 uses · Strong’s H3468Noun · Translated: salvation 30, safety 3, saving 1, Savior 1Full study and all 35 verses →
Psalm 20:6 Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand.
Habakkuk 3:13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people, to save Your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked and stripped him from head to toe. Selah
Greek words (New Testament)
- σώζω sṓzōI save, healtranslated this way 87 times of its 108 uses · Strong’s G4982Verb · Translated: saved 50, save 36, healed 14Full study and all 99 verses →
Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
Mark 3:4 And He asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” But they were silent.
- σωτηρία sōtēríadeliverance, salvationtranslated this way 3 times of its 45 uses · Strong’s G4991Noun · Translated: salvation 39, saved 2, deliver 1, preservation 1Full study and all 44 verses →
Romans 10:10 For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth.
- διασώζω diasṓzōI save, bring safely totranslated this way 2 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G1295Verb · Translated: saved 2Full study and all 8 verses →
Acts 28:4 When the islanders saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “Surely this man is a murderer. Although he was saved from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.”
1 Peter 3:20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In the ark a few people, only eight souls, were saved through water.
- θησαυρίζω thēsaurízōI store up, treasure up, savetranslated this way 2 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G2343Verb · Translated: store 2Full study and all 8 verses →
1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a portion of his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will be needed.
2 Corinthians 12:14 See, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be a burden, because I am not seeking your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
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.