Word study

Stray

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: stray, strays, strayed, straying. 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 “stray” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • תָּעָה tââherrtranslated this way 9 times of its 49 uses · Strong’s H8582Verb  ·  Translated: astray 5, go astray 4, wandered 3, stray 3

    Exodus 23:4 If you encounter your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him.

    Psalm 119:110 The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from Your precepts.

    Full study and all 45 verses →
  • שָׁגָה shâgâhgo astray, errtranslated this way 7 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H7686Verb  ·  Translated: stray 4, strays unintentionally 2, captivated 2, led astray 2

    Leviticus 4:13 Now if the whole congregation of Israel strays unintentionally and the matter escapes the notice of the assembly so that they violate any of the LORD’s commandments and incur guilt by doing what is forbidden,

    Numbers 15:22 Now if you stray unintentionally and do not obey all these commandments that the LORD has spoken to Moses—

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • נָדַח nâdachimpel, thrust, banishtranslated this way 3 times of its 54 uses · Strong’s H5080Verb  ·  Translated: banished 13, exiles 5, driven 4, banish 4

    Deuteronomy 22:1 If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother.

    Ezekiel 34:4 You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.

    Full study and all 53 verses →
  • נָדַד nâdadretreat, flee, depart, stray, wander, fluttertranslated this way 2 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H5074Verb  ·  Translated: fled 4, flee 4, wanders 2, flees 2

    Proverbs 27:8 Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who wanders from his home.

    Hosea 7:13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! Though I would redeem them, they speak lies against Me.

    Full study and all 25 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.

What the Bible says about stray: passages by topic →

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.