Word study

Swept

4 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “swept”. 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 “swept” 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)

  • סָפָה sâphâhsweep away or snatch away, catch uptranslated this way 8 times of its 18 uses · Strong’s H5595Verb  ·  Translated: swept away 8

    Genesis 19:15 At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”

    Numbers 16:26 And he warned the congregation, “Move away now from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.”

    Full study and all 18 verses →
  • עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 5 times of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb  ·  Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35Full study and all 487 verses →
  • נָעַר nâarshake, shake out or offtranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H5287Verb  ·  Translated: shake 3, swept 2, shaken 2

    Exodus 14:27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea returned to its normal state. As the Egyptians were retreating, the LORD swept them into the sea.

    Psalm 136:15 but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea. His loving devotion endures forever.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • שָׁטַף shâṭaphoverflow, rinse or wash offtranslated this way 2 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H7857Verb  ·  Translated: rinsed 3, torrents 3, overflowing 2, like a flood 2

    Daniel 11:22 Then a flood of forces will be swept away before him and destroyed, along with a prince of the covenant.

    Daniel 11:26 Those who eat from his provisions will seek to destroy him; his army will be swept away, and many will fall slain.

    Full study and all 29 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • σαρόω saróōI sweeptranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4563Verb  ·  Translated: swept clean 2, sweep 1

    Matthew 12:44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ On its return, it finds the house vacant, swept clean, and put in order.

    Luke 11:25 On its return, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • γίνομαι gínomaiI come into being, am borntranslated this way 2 times of its 544 uses · Strong’s G1096Verb  ·  Translated: become 58, came 42, became 34, happened 28

    Luke 4:25 But I tell you truthfully that there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and great famine swept over all the land.

    Luke 15:14 After he had spent all he had, a severe famine swept through that country, and he began to be in need.

    Full study and all 515 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.