Word study
Today
5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “today”. 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 “today” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 146 times of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun · Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72Full study and all 1,744 verses →
Genesis 19:37 The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today.
Exodus 2:18 When the daughters returned to their father Reuel, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
- צָוָה tsâvâhlay charge (upon), give charge (to), charge, command, ordertranslated this way 11 times of its 491 uses · Strong’s H6680Verb · Translated: commanded 271, command 41, gave 16, instructed 13Full study and all 473 verses →
Deuteronomy 4:40 Keep His statutes and commandments, which I am giving you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for all time.
Deuteronomy 11:8 You shall therefore keep every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess,
- עַד adas far as, even to, up to, until, whiletranslated this way 5 times of its 1,111 uses · Strong’s H5704Preposition · Translated: until 348, to 278, far 48, forever 43Full study and all 1,024 verses →
Numbers 22:30 But the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not the donkey you have ridden all your life until today? Have I ever treated you this way before?” “No,” he replied.
- גַּם gamalso, moreover, yeatranslated this way 2 times of its 625 uses · Strong’s H1571Conjunction · Translated: even 107, and 100, also 64, too 43Full study and all 565 verses →
Exodus 5:14 Then the Israelite foremen, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over the people, were beaten and asked, “Why have you not fulfilled your quota of bricks yesterday or today, as you did before?”
1 Samuel 20:27 But on the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?”
- פֹּה pôhhere, hithertranslated this way 2 times of its 64 uses · Strong’s H6311Adverb · Translated: here 37, side 14, today 2, on each 2Full study and all 54 verses →
Deuteronomy 5:3 He did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with all of us who are alive here today.
Deuteronomy 29:15 but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God, as well as with those who are not here today.
Greek words (New Testament)
- σήμερον sḗmerontoday, nowtranslated this way 31 times of its 40 uses · Strong’s G4594Adverb · Translated: today 30, day 6, very 2, today's 1Full study and all 39 verses →
Matthew 6:30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Luke 2:11 Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord!
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.