Word study
Sneer
4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sneer, sneers, sneered. 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 “sneer” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- פּוּחַ pûachbreathe, blowtranslated this way 1 time of its 14 uses · Strong’s H6315Verb · Translated: utters 2, breaks 2, Breathe 2Full study and all 14 verses →
Psalm 10:5 He is secure in his ways at all times; Your lofty judgments are far from him; he sneers at all his foes.
- פָּטַר pâṭarseparate, remove, set freetranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H6362Verb · Translated: open 4, eluded 1, released 1, sneer 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Psalm 22:7 All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:
- לָעַג lâagmock, deridetranslated this way 1 time of its 18 uses · Strong’s H3932Verb · Translated: mocks 6, mock 3, mocked 2, scoff 2Full study and all 18 verses →
Proverbs 1:26 in turn I will mock your calamity; I will sneer when terror strikes you,
- רָחַב râchabbe, or grow, wide, largetranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s H7337Verb · Translated: enlarges 4, enlarge 4, broaden 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Isaiah 57:4 Whom are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of deceit,
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐκμυκτηρίζω ekmyktērízōI deride, scoff at, mock greatlytranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G1592Verb · Translated: scoffing 1, sneered 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Luke 23:35 The people stood watching, and the rulers sneered at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”
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.