Word study
Swift
7 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “swift”. 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 “swift” 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)
- קַל qallight, swift, fleettranslated this way 7 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s H7031Adjective · Translated: swift 6, fleet 2, swiftly 2, foam 1Full study and all 13 verses →
Ecclesiastes 9:11 I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor the favor to the skillful. For time and chance happen to all.
Isaiah 18:2 which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.
- מָהַר mâharhastentranslated this way 4 times of its 66 uses · Strong’s H4116Verb · Translated: quickly 20, hurried 9, Hurry 6, swift 4Full study and all 61 verses →
1 Chronicles 12:8 Some Gadites defected to David at his stronghold in the wilderness. They were mighty men of valor, trained for battle, experts with the shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions and who were as swift as gazelles on the mountains:
Proverbs 1:16 For their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed blood.
- רֶכֶשׁ rekeshsteedstranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H7409Noun · Translated: horses 2, chariot horses 1, swift horses 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Esther 8:10 Mordecai wrote in the name of King Xerxes and sealed it with the royal signet ring. He sent the documents by mounted couriers riding on swift horses bred from the royal mares.
- עָרוֹד ârôdwild asstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H6171Noun · Translated: swift donkey 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Job 39:5 Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?
- סוּס sûsswallow or swifttranslated this way 1 time of its 135 uses · Strong’s H5483Noun · Translated: horses 91, horse 26, horseback 2, like a horse 2Full study and all 126 verses →
Jeremiah 8:7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep their time of migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the LORD.
- יְעָף yeâphweariness, faintnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H3288Noun · Translated: swift flight 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Daniel 9:21 while I was still praying, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.
- פָּרָשׁ pârâshhorse, steedtranslated this way 1 time of its 55 uses · Strong’s H6571Noun · Translated: horsemen 30, cavalry 9, horses 8, charioteers 2Full study and all 54 verses →
Joel 2:4 Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like swift steeds.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὀξύς oxýssharp, swift, eagertranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s G3691Adjective · Translated: sharp 7, swift 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Romans 3:15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
- ταχινός tachinósswift, quicktranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s G5031Adjective · Translated: soon 1, swift 1Full study and all 2 verses →
2 Peter 2:1 Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them — bringing swift destruction on themselves.
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.