Word study
Slave
7 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: slave, slaves. 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 “slave” 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)
- עֶבֶד ebedslave, servanttranslated this way 44 times of its 793 uses · Strong’s H5650Noun · Translated: servant 327, servants 282, officials 31, slaves 24Full study and all 712 verses →
Genesis 39:17 Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me,
Exodus 12:44 But any slave who has been purchased may eat of it, after you have circumcised him.
- עָצָר âtsârrestrain, retaintranslated this way 5 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s H6113Verb · Translated: halted 6, slave 5, shut 4, confined 3Full study and all 44 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:36 For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.
1 Kings 14:10 Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is gone!
- אָמָה âmâhmaid, handmaidtranslated this way 3 times of its 53 uses · Strong’s H519Noun · Translated: maidservant 25, maidservants 13, servant 9, slave woman's 2Full study and all 49 verses →
Genesis 21:10 and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”
Genesis 21:13 But I will also make a nation of the slave woman’s son, because he is your offspring.”
- עָבַד âbadwork, servetranslated this way 2 times of its 286 uses · Strong’s H5647Verb · Translated: serve 110, served 44, worship 32, work 9Full study and all 259 verses →
Genesis 15:14 But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will depart with many possessions.
Leviticus 25:46 You may leave them to your sons after you to inherit as property; you can make them slaves for life. But as for your brothers, the Israelites, no man may rule harshly over his brother.
- שִׁפְחָה shiphchâhmaid, maid-servanttranslated this way 2 times of its 60 uses · Strong’s H8198Noun · Translated: maidservant 18, maidservants 17, servant 14, servant girl 4Full study and all 56 verses →
Leviticus 19:20 If a man lies carnally with a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. But they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed.
Deuteronomy 28:68 The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
- נֶפֶשׁ nepheshsoul, living being, life, self, person, desire, appetite, emotion, and passiontranslated this way 2 times of its 666 uses · Strong’s H5315Noun · Translated: soul 178, life 119, lives 30, person 22Full study and all 622 verses →
Leviticus 22:11 But if a priest buys a slave with his own money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food.
Ezekiel 27:13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your merchants. They exchanged slaves and bronze utensils for your merchandise.
- עָמַר âmarbind sheavestranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6014Verb · Translated: treat her as a slave 1, treats him as a slave 1, binder of sheaves 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Deuteronomy 21:14 And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.
Deuteronomy 24:7 If a man is caught kidnapping one of his Israelite brothers, whether he treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. So you must purge the evil from among you.
Greek words (New Testament)
- δοῦλος doûlosa male slavetranslated this way 28 times of its 125 uses · Strong’s G1401Noun · Translated: servant 55, servants 36, slave 18, slaves 10Full study and all 117 verses →
Matthew 20:27 and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave —
Mark 10:44 and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all.
- παιδίσκη paidískēa female slave, maidservant, maid.translated this way 5 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s G3814Noun · Translated: servant girl 5, slave woman 3Full study and all 12 verses →
Acts 16:16 One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling.
Galatians 4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
- δουλόω doulóōI enslavetranslated this way 4 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G1402Verb · Translated: enslaved 2, become slaves 2, bound 1, make myself a slave 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Romans 6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
1 Corinthians 9:19 Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
- δουλεύω douleúōI am a slave, am subject to, obeytranslated this way 3 times of its 25 uses · Strong’s G1398Verb · Translated: serve 11, served 3, serving 3, slaves 2Full study and all 23 verses →
John 8:33 “We are Abraham’s descendants,” they answered. “We have never been slaves to anyone. How can You say we will be set free?”
Romans 6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
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.