Word study
Success
6 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “success”. 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 “success” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- צָלַח tsâlachrushtranslated this way 8 times of its 65 uses · Strong’s H6743Verb · Translated: prosper 13, succeed 8, success 5, prospered 5Full study and all 64 verses →
Genesis 24:21 Meanwhile, the man watched her silently to see whether or not the LORD had made his journey a success.
2 Chronicles 26:5 He sought God throughout the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. And as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.
- תּוּשִׁיָּה tûshîâhsound, efficient wisdom, abiding successtranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H8454Noun · Translated: sound judgment 3, success 2, sound wisdom 2, true wisdom 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Job 5:12 He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success.
Job 6:13 Is there any help within me now that success is driven from me?
- טוֹב ṭôbpleasant, agreeable, goodtranslated this way 2 times of its 538 uses · Strong’s H2896Adjective · Translated: good 249, better 72, prosperity 19, good things 12Full study and all 499 verses →
- קָרָה qârâhencounter, meet, befalltranslated this way 1 time of its 25 uses · Strong’s H7136Verb · Translated: happened 4, met 4, happen 3, laid its beams 2Full study and all 25 verses →
Genesis 24:12 “O LORD, God of my master Abraham,” he prayed, “please grant me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.
- כִּשְׁרוֹן kishrônskill, successtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H3788Noun · Translated: skill 1, success 1, profit 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Ecclesiastes 4:4 I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- כָּשֵׁר kâshêrbe advantageous, proper, suitable, succeedtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H3787Verb · Translated: proper 1, success 1, succeed 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Ecclesiastes 10:10 If the axe is dull and the blade unsharpened, more strength must be exerted, but skill produces success.
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.