Word study
Tender
11 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “tender”. 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 “tender” 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)
- רַךְ raktender, delicate, softtranslated this way 4 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H7390Adjective · Translated: tender 3, gentle 3, inexperienced 3, weak 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Genesis 18:7 Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd, selected a tender and choice calf, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.
Proverbs 4:3 When I was a son to my father, tender and the only child of my mother,
- יָרָק yârâqherbstranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H3419Noun · Translated: tender 2, like a vegetable 1, vegetable 1, vegetables 1Full study and all 5 verses →
2 Kings 19:26 Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power, are dismayed and ashamed. They are like plants in the field, tender green shoots, grass on the rooftops, scorched before it is grown.
Isaiah 37:27 Therefore their inhabitants, devoid of power, are dismayed and ashamed. They are like plants in the field, tender green shoots, grass on the rooftops, scorched before it is grown.
- רָכַךְ râkakbe tender, weak, softtranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H7401Verb · Translated: tender 2, fainthearted 1, faint 1, softer 1Full study and all 7 verses →
2 Kings 22:19 because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.
2 Chronicles 34:27 because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its people, and because you have humbled yourself before Me and have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.
- דֶּתֶא dethegrasstranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H1883Noun · Translated: tender grass 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Daniel 4:15 But leave the stump with its roots in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze around it, in the tender grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven and graze with the beasts on the grass of the earth.
Daniel 4:23 And you, O king, saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying: ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump with its roots in the ground, with a band of iron and bronze around it, in the tender grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and graze with the beasts of the field till seven times pass him by.’
- עֶשֶׂב esebherb, herbagetranslated this way 1 time of its 32 uses · Strong’s H6212Noun · Translated: plant 9, plants 7, grass 6, like the grass 2Full study and all 31 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants.
- יוֹנֶקֶת yôneqethyoung shoot, twigtranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s H3127Noun · Translated: shoots 5, tender shoots 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Job 14:7 For there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender shoots will not fail.
- דֶּשֶׁא deshegrasstranslated this way 1 time of its 14 uses · Strong’s H1877Noun · Translated: vegetation 3, green shoots 2Full study and all 14 verses →
Job 38:27 to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?
- יֶרֶק yereqgreen, greennesstranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s H3418Noun · Translated: green 2, gave you the green 1, grass 1, like tender 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Psalm 37:2 For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants.
- רַחַם rachamwombtranslated this way 1 time of its 43 uses · Strong’s H7356Noun · Translated: compassion 24, mercy 6, mercies 4, womb 2Full study and all 42 verses →
Proverbs 12:10 A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are only cruelty.
- יוֹנֵק yônêqyoung plant, saplingtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H3126Noun · Translated: like a tender shoot 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Isaiah 53:2 He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him.
- בָּלַס bâlasgather figstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H1103Verb · Translated: tender 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Amos 7:14 “I was not a prophet,” Amos replied, “nor was I the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀπαλός apalóstendertranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G527Adjective · Translated: tender 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Matthew 24:32 Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near.
Mark 13:28 Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near.
- σπλάγχνον splánchnonbowels, compassion, pitytranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s G4698Noun · Translated: affection 4, hearts 2, heart 2, tender 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Luke 1:78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the Dawn will visit us from on high,
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.