Word study

Tightly

6 Hebrew words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • סָגַר sâgarshut, closetranslated this way 2 times of its 90 uses · Strong’s H5462Verb  ·  Translated: shut 23, closed 9, isolate 8, delivered 8

    Joshua 6:1 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

    Job 41:15 His rows of scales are his pride, tightly sealed together.

    Full study and all 87 verses →
  • שָׂרַג sâragbe intertwinedtranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8276Verb  ·  Translated: tightly knit 1, knit together 1

    Job 40:17 His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • דָּבַק dâbaqcling, cleave, keep closetranslated this way 1 time of its 54 uses · Strong’s H1692Verb  ·  Translated: cling 12, hold fast 6, overtook 4, clung 3

    Job 41:23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable.

    Full study and all 52 verses →
  • עַיִן ayineyetranslated this way 1 time of its 764 uses · Strong’s H5869Noun  ·  Translated: eyes 383, sight 186, eye 38, presence 13Full study and all 731 verses →
  • חָבַשׁ châbashbind, bind on, bind uptranslated this way 1 time of its 32 uses · Strong’s H2280Verb  ·  Translated: saddled 11, binds 3, Saddle 2, bind 2

    Ezekiel 27:24 In your marketplace they traded with you fine garments of blue, embroidered work, and multicolored rugs with cords tightly twisted and knotted.

    Full study and all 30 verses →
  • חָזַק châzaqbe or grow firm, strong, strengthentranslated this way 1 time of its 290 uses · Strong’s H2388Verb  ·  Translated: strong 37, made repairs 22, strengthened 16, repaired 15

    Zechariah 8:23 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue will tightly grasp the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

    Full study and all 264 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.