Word study
Spare
8 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: spare, spared, sparing, spares. 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 “spare” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- חָמַל châmalsparetranslated this way 18 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H2550Verb · Translated: spare 10, compassion 7, pity 5, mercy 5Full study and all 37 verses →
Deuteronomy 13:8 you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him.
1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
- חָיָה châyâhlivetranslated this way 12 times of its 265 uses · Strong’s H2421Verb · Translated: live 96, lived 24, was 17, revive 14Full study and all 254 verses →
Genesis 12:13 Please say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake, and on account of you my life will be spared.”
Numbers 31:15 “Have you spared all the women?” he asked them.
- נָצַל nâtsalstrip, plundertranslated this way 4 times of its 205 uses · Strong’s H5337Verb · Translated: deliver 75, delivered 34, rescue 30, rescued 9Full study and all 191 verses →
Genesis 32:30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Exodus 12:27 you are to reply, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He struck down the Egyptians and spared our homes.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.
- חָשַׂךְ châsakwithhold, refraintranslated this way 4 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H2820Verb · Translated: withheld 3, restrained 3, restrain 2, restrains 2Full study and all 27 verses →
2 Kings 5:20 Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, “Look, my master has spared this Aramean, Naaman, by not accepting what he brought. As surely as the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”
Job 21:30 Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.
- חוּס chûspity, look upon with compassiontranslated this way 3 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H2347Verb · Translated: pity 7, spare 2Full study and all 22 verses →
1 Samuel 24:10 Behold, this day you have seen with your own eyes that the LORD delivered you into my hand in the cave. I was told to kill you, but I spared you and said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.’
Jeremiah 21:7 ‘After that,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and the people in this city who survive the plague and sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will not spare them or show pity or compassion.’
- שָׁאַר shâarremain, be left overtranslated this way 2 times of its 126 uses · Strong’s H7604Verb · Translated: left 24, remained 19, remain 15, survive 8Full study and all 118 verses →
Joshua 11:14 The Israelites took for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but they put all the people to the sword until they had completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone who breathed.
2 Kings 10:14 Then Jehu ordered, “Take them alive.” So his men took them alive, then slaughtered them at the well of Beth-eked— forty-two men. He spared none of them.
- נָשָׂא nâsâlift, take, carrytranslated this way 2 times of its 642 uses · Strong’s H5375Verb · Translated: bear 49, lift 45, lifted 41, carried 38Full study and all 601 verses →
Genesis 18:24 What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there?
Genesis 18:26 So the LORD replied, “If I find fifty righteous ones within the city of Sodom, on their account I will spare the whole place.”
- עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 2 times of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb · Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35Full study and all 487 verses →
Greek words (New Testament)
- φείδομαι pheídomaiI spare, abstaintranslated this way 9 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G5339Verb · Translated: spare 9, refrain 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Acts 20:29 I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
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.