Word study
Stubborn
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “stubborn”. 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 “stubborn” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- סָרַר sârarbe stubborn, rebellioustranslated this way 7 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H5637Verb · Translated: stubborn 7, rebellious 5, obstinate 2, defiant 1Full study and all 16 verses →
Deuteronomy 21:18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined,
Nehemiah 9:29 You admonished them to turn back to Your law, but they were arrogant and disobeyed Your commandments. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he practices them. They turned a stubborn shoulder; they stiffened their necks and would not obey.
- קָשֶׁה qâshehhard, severetranslated this way 2 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s H7186Adjective · Translated: stiff-necked 6, harshly 5, hard 3, stubborn 2Full study and all 35 verses →
Judges 2:19 But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
Isaiah 48:4 For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.
- שְׁרִירוּת sherîrûthfirmnesstranslated this way 2 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H8307Noun · Translated: stubbornness 7, stubborn 2, according to the stubbornness 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Psalm 81:12 So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.
Jeremiah 7:24 Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. They went backward and not forward.
- עֹז ôzstrength, mighttranslated this way 1 time of its 91 uses · Strong’s H5797Noun · Translated: strength 45, power 10, strong 9, mighty 9Full study and all 90 verses →
Leviticus 26:19 I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,
- קָשָׁה qâshâhbe hard, severe, fiercetranslated this way 1 time of its 28 uses · Strong’s H7185Verb · Translated: stiffened 6, difficult 2, harden 2, stiffen 2Full study and all 28 verses →
Deuteronomy 2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass through, for the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate, that He might deliver him into your hand, as is the case this day.
- אַבִּיר abbîrmighty, valianttranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H47Adjective · Translated: stallions 2, mighty 2, strong 2, bulls 2Full study and all 17 verses →
Isaiah 46:12 Listen to Me, you stubborn people, far removed from righteousness:
- חָזָק châzâqstrong, stout, mightytranslated this way 1 time of its 55 uses · Strong’s H2389Adjective · Translated: mighty 20, strong 18, powerful 2, hard 2Full study and all 53 verses →
Ezekiel 2:4 They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’
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.