Word study
Sit
2 Hebrew and 6 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sit, sat, sitting, sits, sites. 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 “sit” 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)
- יָשַׁב yâshabsit, remain, dwelltranslated this way 187 times of its 1,049 uses · Strong’s H3427Verb · Translated: lived 103, dwell 89, live 84, sit 70Full study and all 960 verses →
Genesis 18:1 Then the LORD appeared to Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre in the heat of the day, while he was sitting at the entrance of his tent.
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.
- מָקוֹם mâqômstanding, spot, conditiontranslated this way 2 times of its 381 uses · Strong’s H4725Noun · Translated: place 279, home 16, places 11, wherever 7Full study and all 364 verses →
2 Kings 23:14 He smashed the sacred pillars to pieces, cut down the Asherah poles, and covered the sites with human bones.
2 Chronicles 33:19 His prayer and how God received his plea, as well as all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself, they are indeed written in the Records of the Seers.
Greek words (New Testament)
- κάθημαι káthēmaiI sit, am seatedtranslated this way 55 times of its 84 uses · Strong’s G2521Verb · Translated: sitting 26, seated 23, Sit 11, sat 10Full study and all 82 verses →
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him.
Mark 2:6 But some of the scribes were sitting there and thinking in their hearts,
- καθίζω kathízōI set, make to sittranslated this way 38 times of its 46 uses · Strong’s G2523Verb · Translated: sat 20, sit 12, sitting 4, seated 2Full study and all 45 verses →
Matthew 5:1 When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain and sat down. His disciples came to Him,
Mark 9:35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.”
- ἀναπίπτω anapíptōI lie down, recline, fall back upontranslated this way 7 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s G377Verb · Translated: sit 4, sat 2, reclined at the table 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Matthew 15:35 And He instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Mark 6:40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.
- καθέζομαι kathézomaiI am sitting, sit, am seatedtranslated this way 5 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G2516Verb · Translated: sitting 3, sat 2, stayed 1, seated 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Matthew 26:55 At that time Jesus said to the crowd, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would an outlaw? Every day I sat teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest Me.
Luke 2:46 Finally, after three days they found Him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
- ἀνακαθίζω anakathízōI sit uptranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G339Verb · Translated: sat 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Luke 7:15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak! Then Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Acts 9:40 Then Peter sent them all out of the room. He knelt down and prayed, and turning toward her body, he said, “Tabitha, get up!” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up.
- κατακλίνω kataklínōI recline, cause to reclinetranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G2625Verb · Translated: sit 2, reclined at the table 1, seated 1, reclining 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Luke 9:14 (There were about five thousand men.) He told His disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
Luke 14:8 “When you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not sit in the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited.
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.