Word study

Spent

3 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “spent”. 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 “spent” 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)

  • לוּן lûnlodge, pass the nighttranslated this way 10 times of its 80 uses · Strong’s H3885Verb  ·  Translated: spend the night 17, spent the night 7, grumbled 7, remain 6

    Genesis 24:54 Then he and the men with him ate and drank and spent the night there. When they got up the next morning, he said, “Send me on my way to my master.”

    Joshua 6:11 So he had the ark of the LORD carried around the city, circling it once. And the people returned to the camp and spent the night there.

    Full study and all 76 verses →
  • כָּלָה kâlâhbe complete, at an end, finished, accomplished, spenttranslated this way 4 times of its 206 uses · Strong’s H3615Verb  ·  Translated: finished 54, fail 12, consumed 9, completed 7

    Proverbs 5:11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,

    Isaiah 49:4 But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength in futility and vanity; yet My vindication is with the LORD, and My reward is with My God.”

    Full study and all 200 verses →
  • הָיָה hâyâhfall out, come to pass, become, betranslated this way 2 times of its 2,848 uses · Strong’s H1961Verb  ·  Translated: will be 206, become 178, came 169, was 151Full study and all 2,573 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • διατρίβω diatríbōI tarry, continue, staytranslated this way 4 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G1304Verb  ·  Translated: spent some time 2, spent 2, stayed 2, remained 1

    John 3:22 After this, Jesus and His disciples went into the Judean countryside, where He spent some time with them and baptized.

    Acts 12:19 After Herod had searched for him unsuccessfully, he examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent some time there.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • δαπανάω dapanáōI spend, bear expense, wastetranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G1159Verb  ·  Translated: spent 2, pay their expenses 1, spend my money 1, squander 1

    Mark 5:26 She had borne much agony under the care of many physicians and had spent all she had, but to no avail. Instead, her condition had only grown worse.

    Luke 15:14 After he had spent all he had, a severe famine swept through that country, and he began to be in need.

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • ἔχω échōI have, hold, possesstranslated this way 2 times of its 624 uses · Strong’s G2192Verb  ·  Translated: has 63, have 52, with 35, you have 29

    John 5:6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized that he had spent a long time in this condition, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

    John 11:17 When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already spent four days in the tomb.

    Full study and all 560 verses →
  • ποιέω poiéōI do, maketranslated this way 2 times of its 544 uses · Strong’s G4160Verb  ·  Translated: do 50, done 44, doing 40, made 34Full study and all 494 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.