Word study

Settle

6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: settled, settle, settles. 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 “settle” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • יָשַׁב yâshabsit, remain, dwelltranslated this way 67 times of its 1,049 uses · Strong’s H3427Verb  ·  Translated: lived 103, dwell 89, live 84, sit 70

    Genesis 4:16 So Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

    Exodus 2:15 When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.

    Full study and all 960 verses →
  • שָׁכַן shâkansettle down, abide, dwelltranslated this way 15 times of its 129 uses · Strong’s H7931Verb  ·  Translated: dwell 45, dwelling 9, settle 8, settled 7

    Genesis 25:18 Ishmael’s descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.

    Exodus 24:16 and the glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the LORD called to Moses from within the cloud.

    Full study and all 124 verses →
  • נוּחַ nûachresttranslated this way 6 times of its 140 uses · Strong’s H5117Verb  ·  Translated: rest 20, leave 10, placed 9, set 7

    Exodus 10:14 The locusts swarmed across the land and settled over the entire territory of Egypt. Never before had there been so many locusts, and never again will there be.

    Joshua 6:23 So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel.

    Full study and all 139 verses →
  • גּוּר gûrsojourntranslated this way 4 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s H1481Verb  ·  Translated: residing 8, reside 6, living 6, dwell 6

    Judges 17:8 This man left the city of Bethlehem in Judah to settle where he could find a place. And as he traveled, he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.

    2 Chronicles 15:9 And he assembled all Judah and Benjamin, along with those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them, for great numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

    Full study and all 85 verses →
  • עִיר îrexcitementtranslated this way 2 times of its 1,034 uses · Strong’s H5892Noun  ·  Translated: city 583, cities 344, towns 21, town 13Full study and all 925 verses →
  • חָנָה chânâhdecline, bend down, encamptranslated this way 2 times of its 141 uses · Strong’s H2583Verb  ·  Translated: camped 90, camp 18, encamped 11, laid siege 4

    Nehemiah 11:30 Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages; in Lachish and its fields; and in Azekah and its villages. So they settled from Beersheba all the way to the Valley of Hinnom.

    Nahum 3:17 Your guards are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day. When the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where.

    Full study and all 135 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • συναίρω synaírōI make a reckoning, settle accountstranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4868Verb  ·  Translated: settle 1, settlements 1, settled 1

    Matthew 18:23 Because of this, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

    Matthew 25:19 After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
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.