Word study
Strange
2 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “strange”. 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 “strange” 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)
- זוּר zûrbe a strangertranslated this way 4 times of its 76 uses · Strong’s H2114Adjective · Translated: foreigners 13, strangers 12, outsider 9, stranger 8Full study and all 75 verses →
Psalm 81:9 There must be no strange god among you, nor shall you bow to a foreign god.
Proverbs 23:33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.
- מְבוּסָה mebûsâhdown-treading, subjugationtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4001Noun · Translated: strange speech 2, trampling 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Isaiah 18:2 which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.
Isaiah 18:7 At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts— from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers— to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ξενίζω xenízōI entertain a stranger, I startletranslated this way 2 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G3579Verb · Translated: staying 2, entertained 2Full study and all 10 verses →
Acts 17:20 For you are bringing some strange notions to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”
1 Peter 4:4 Because of this, they consider it strange of you not to plunge with them into the same flood of reckless indiscretion, and they heap abuse on you.
- ξένος xénosnew, novel, a foreignertranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s G3581Adjective · Translated: stranger 4, strangers 4, foreigners 2Full study and all 14 verses →
Hebrews 13:9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to them.
1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.
- ἀλλότριος allótriosbelonging to another person, foreigntranslated this way 1 time of its 13 uses · Strong’s G245Adjective · Translated: others 4, foreign 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Acts 7:6 God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.
- ἑτερόγλωσσος heteróglōssosspeaking another languagetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2084Adjective · Translated: strange tongues 1Full study and its 1 verse →
1 Corinthians 14:21 It is written in the Law: “By strange tongues and foreign lips I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to Me, says the Lord.”
- ἕτερος héterosanother, differenttranslated this way 1 time of its 96 uses · Strong’s G2087Adjective · Translated: another 32, other 26, others 17, different 5Full study and all 91 verses →
Jude 1:7 In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.
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.