Word study

Torture

1 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: torture, tortured. 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 “torture” or one of its forms.

Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • עָלַל âlalact severelytranslated this way 2 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H5953Verb  ·  Translated: torture 2

    1 Samuel 31:4 Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and torture me!” But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

    1 Chronicles 10:4 Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and torture me!” But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

    Full study and all 18 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • βασανίζω basanízōI torment, torture, buffettranslated this way 3 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s G928Verb  ·  Translated: tormented 4, torture 3, agony 2, buffeted 1

    Matthew 8:29 “What do You want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have You come here to torture us before the appointed time?”

    Mark 5:7 And he shouted in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You before God not to torture me!”

    Full study and all 12 verses →
  • βασανιστής basanistḗsone who tortures, a tormentor, jailortranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G930Noun  ·  Translated: jailers to be tortured 1

    Matthew 18:34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • τυμπανίζω tympanízōI torture, break on the wheeltranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G5178Verb  ·  Translated: tortured 1

    Hebrews 11:35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
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.