Word study

Swear

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: swore, swear, sworn, swears, swearing. 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 “swear” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • שָׁבַע shâbasweartranslated this way 145 times of its 185 uses · Strong’s H7650Verb  ·  Translated: swore 43, sworn 32, swear 28, swore an oath 12

    Genesis 21:23 Now, therefore, swear to me here before God that you will not deal falsely with me or my children or descendants. Show to me and to the country in which you reside the same kindness that I have shown to you.”

    Exodus 13:5 And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites — the land He swore to your fathers that He would give you, a land flowing with milk and honey — you shall keep this service in this month.

    Full study and all 175 verses →
  • נָשָׂא nâsâlift, take, carrytranslated this way 12 times of its 642 uses · Strong’s H5375Verb  ·  Translated: bear 49, lift 45, lifted 41, carried 38

    Exodus 6:8 And I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD!’”

    Numbers 14:30 Surely none of you will enter the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

    Full study and all 601 verses →
  • שְׁבוּעָה shebûâhoath, cursetranslated this way 5 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s H7621Noun  ·  Translated: oath 19, curse 3, sworn 2, oath he swore 2

    Numbers 30:13 Her husband may confirm or nullify any vow or any sworn pledge to deny herself.

    1 Chronicles 16:16 the covenant He made with Abraham, and the oath He swore to Isaac.

    Full study and all 28 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ὀμνύω omnýōI swear, take an oathtranslated this way 25 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s G3660Verb  ·  Translated: swears 10, swear 8, swore 4, swore on oath 2

    Matthew 5:34 But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;

    Mark 6:23 And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask of me, I will give you, up to half my kingdom!”

    Full study and all 20 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.