Word study

Strife

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • רִיב rîbstrife, disputetranslated this way 9 times of its 61 uses · Strong’s H7379Noun  ·  Translated: case 11, strife 9, dispute 8, cause 8

    2 Samuel 22:44 You have delivered me from the strife of my people; You have preserved me as the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.

    Psalm 18:43 You have delivered me from the strife of the people; You have made me the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.

    Full study and all 60 verses →
  • מַצָּה matstsâhstrife, contentiontranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4683Noun  ·  Translated: strife 3

    Proverbs 13:10 Arrogance leads only to strife, but wisdom is with the well-advised.

    Isaiah 58:4 You fast with contention and strife to strike viciously with your fist. You cannot fast as you do today and have your voice be heard on high.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • מָדוֹן mâdônstrife, contentiontranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H4066Noun  ·  Translated: conflict 4, strife 2, dissension 2, contentious 2

    Proverbs 15:18 A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger calms dispute.

    Proverbs 28:25 A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • גָּרָה gârâhengage in strifetranslated this way 1 time of its 14 uses · Strong’s H1624Verb  ·  Translated: provoke 3, stirs 3, stir 2

    Daniel 11:10 But his sons will stir up strife and assemble a great army, which will advance forcefully, sweeping through like a flood, and will again carry the battle as far as his fortress.

    Full study and all 13 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἔρις ériscontention, strifetranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s G2054Noun  ·  Translated: strife 2, dissension 2

    Romans 1:29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

    1 Timothy 6:4 he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and disputes about words, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions,

    Full study and all 9 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 strife: 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.