Word study

Spite

8 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “spite”. 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 “spite” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עַל alheighttranslated this way 3 times of its 4,859 uses · Strong’s H5921Preposition  ·  Translated: on 777, over 297, in 218, against 216Full study and all 3,996 verses →
  • כֹּל kôlthe whole, alltranslated this way 2 times of its 5,107 uses · Strong’s H3605Noun  ·  Translated: all 1,589, and all 471, whole 223, every 196Full study and all 4,112 verses →
  • אֵלֶּה êl-lehthesetranslated this way 1 time of its 693 uses · Strong’s H428Pronoun  ·  Translated: these 377, things 36, of these 28, this 25

    Leviticus 26:23 And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

    Full study and all 655 verses →
  • זֹאת zôththistranslated this way 1 time of its 559 uses · Strong’s H2063Pronoun  ·  Translated: this 333, of this 33, in this 26, and this 15

    Leviticus 26:27 But if in spite of all this you do not obey Me, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,

    Full study and all 534 verses →
  • גַּם gamalso, moreover, yeatranslated this way 1 time of its 625 uses · Strong’s H1571Conjunction  ·  Translated: even 107, and 100, also 64, too 43

    Leviticus 26:44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject or despise them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God.

    Full study and all 565 verses →
  • דָּבָר dâbârspeech, wordtranslated this way 1 time of its 1,244 uses · Strong’s H1697Noun  ·  Translated: word 342, words 299, acts 51, Chronicles 42

    Deuteronomy 1:32 But in spite of all this, you did not trust the LORD your God,

    Full study and all 1,120 verses →
  • רֹב rôbmultitude, abundance, greatnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 142 uses · Strong’s H7230Noun  ·  Translated: many 28, abundance 22, great 18, abundant 10

    Isaiah 47:9 These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.

    Full study and all 138 verses →
  • מַעַן maanpurpose, intenttranslated this way 1 time of its 254 uses · Strong’s H4616Conjunction  ·  Translated: so that 90, sake 44, that 21, to 18

    Jeremiah 7:19 But am I the One they are provoking? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves they spite, to their own shame?

    Full study and all 240 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.