Word study

Sway

6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: sway, sways, swaying, swayed. 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 “sway” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נוּעַ nûaquiver, wave, waver, tremble, tottertranslated this way 4 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H5128Verb  ·  Translated: shake 5, sway 3, shakes 3, fugitive 2

    Judges 9:9 But the olive tree replied, ‘Should I stop giving my oil that honors both God and man, to hold sway over the trees?’

    Job 28:4 Far from human habitation he cuts a shaft in places forgotten by the foot of man. Far from men he dangles and sways.

    Full study and all 36 verses →
  • רָעַשׁ râashquake, shaketranslated this way 1 time of its 30 uses · Strong’s H7493Verb  ·  Translated: quake 6, shake 6, tremble 4, quaked 3

    Psalm 72:16 May there be an abundance of grain in the land; may it sway atop the hills. May its fruit trees flourish like the forests of Lebanon, the people of its cities like the grass of the field.

    Full study and all 30 verses →
  • נָטָה nâṭâhstretch out, spread out, extend, incline, bendtranslated this way 1 time of its 215 uses · Strong’s H5186Verb  ·  Translated: incline 24, stretch 23, stretched 21, outstretched 19

    2 Samuel 19:14 So he swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man, and they sent word to the king: “Return, you and all your servants.”

    Full study and all 207 verses →
  • חָפֵץ châphêtsdelight intranslated this way 1 time of its 73 uses · Strong’s H2654Verb  ·  Translated: delight 14, delighted 13, desire 8, pleases 5

    Job 40:17 His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.

    Full study and all 70 verses →
  • נוּד nûdmove to and fro, wander, flutter, shew grieftranslated this way 1 time of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5110Verb  ·  Translated: Flee 3, wanderer 2, grieve 2, mourn 2

    Isaiah 24:20 The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.

    Full study and all 24 verses →
  • קָלַל qâlalbe slight, swift, triflingtranslated this way 1 time of its 82 uses · Strong’s H7043Verb  ·  Translated: curse 15, cursed 8, curses 5, swifter 5

    Jeremiah 4:24 I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.

    Full study and all 79 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • σαλεύω saleúōI shake, excitetranslated this way 2 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s G4531Verb  ·  Translated: shaken 6, swaying 2, shook 2

    Matthew 11:7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?

    Luke 7:24 After John’s messengers had left, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the wind?

    Full study and all 14 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.

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.