Word study

Thirsty

3 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “thirsty”. 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 “thirsty” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • צָמֵא tsâmêthirstytranslated this way 8 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H6771Adjective  ·  Translated: thirsty 5, dry 1, thirsty man 1, deprives the thirsty 1

    2 Samuel 17:29 honey, curds, sheep, and cheese from the herd for David and his people to eat. For they said, “The people have become hungry, exhausted, and thirsty in the wilderness.”

    Psalm 107:5 They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted within them.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • צָמֵא tsâmêbe thirstytranslated this way 5 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H6770Verb  ·  Translated: thirsty 3, go thirsty 2, thirsts 2, thirst 2

    Judges 4:19 Sisera said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again.

    Ruth 2:9 Let your eyes be on the field they are harvesting, and follow along after these girls. Indeed, I have ordered the young men not to touch you. And when you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.”

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • צִמָּאוֹן tsimmâônthirsty groundtranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6774Noun  ·  Translated: thirsty 1, thirsty ground 1, thirsty land 1

    Deuteronomy 8:15 He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.

    Psalm 107:33 He turns rivers into deserts, springs of water into thirsty ground,

    Full study and all 3 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • διψάω dipsáōI thirst for, desire earnestlytranslated this way 12 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s G1372Verb  ·  Translated: thirsty 11, thirst 2, never thirst 2, get thirsty 1

    Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in,

    John 4:13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.

    Full study and all 16 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.