Word study
Summon
5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: summoned, summon, summons, summoning. 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 “summon” 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)
- קָרָא qârâcall, proclaim, readtranslated this way 71 times of its 709 uses · Strong’s H7121Verb · Translated: called 211, call 104, named 58, summoned 50Full study and all 663 verses →
Genesis 12:18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?
Exodus 1:18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
- שָׁלַח shâlachsendtranslated this way 16 times of its 829 uses · Strong’s H7971Verb · Translated: sent 334, send 126, go 43, sending 19Full study and all 783 verses →
Genesis 41:8 In the morning his spirit was troubled, so he summoned all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
Exodus 9:27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said. “The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.
- זָעַק zâaqcry, cry out, calltranslated this way 5 times of its 72 uses · Strong’s H2199Verb · Translated: cried 26, cry 23, cries 4, summoned 3Full study and all 72 verses →
Joshua 8:16 Then all the men of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they followed Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
Judges 4:10 where he summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men followed him, and Deborah also went with him.
- שָׁמַע shâmaheartranslated this way 5 times of its 1,132 uses · Strong’s H8085Verb · Translated: heard 311, hear 253, listen 218, obey 60Full study and all 1,063 verses →
- צָעַק tsâaqcry, cry out, calltranslated this way 3 times of its 55 uses · Strong’s H6817Verb · Translated: cried 19, cry 13, called 3, summoned 3Full study and all 53 verses →
1 Samuel 10:17 After this, Samuel summoned the people to the LORD at Mizpah
2 Kings 3:21 Now all the Moabites had heard that the kings had come up to fight against them. So all who could bear arms, young and old, were summoned and stationed at the border.
Greek words (New Testament)
- προσκαλέομαι proskaléomaiI summontranslated this way 4 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s G4341Verb · Translated: called 17, summoned 4, called them together 2, call 2Full study and all 29 verses →
Matthew 18:32 Then the master summoned him and said, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me.
Mark 15:44 Pilate was surprised to hear that Jesus was already dead, so he summoned the centurion to ask if this was so.
- φωνέω phōnéōI crow, shout, summontranslated this way 2 times of its 41 uses · Strong’s G5455Verb · Translated: called 17, crows 6, crowed 5, calling 3Full study and all 37 verses →
John 9:18 The Jews still did not believe that the man had been blind and had received his sight until they summoned his parents
John 18:33 Pilate went back into the Praetorium, summoned Jesus, and asked Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
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.