Word study
Track
10 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: track, tracks, tracked. 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 “track” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׁמַר shâmarkeep, watch, preservetranslated this way 2 times of its 461 uses · Strong’s H8104Verb · Translated: keep 133, careful 39, kept 33, guard 25Full study and all 436 verses →
- אָשֻׁר âshurstep, goingtranslated this way 2 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H838Noun · Translated: steps 6, tracks 1, tracked 1, made my footsteps 1Full study and all 9 verses →
Job 23:11 My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside.
Psalm 17:11 They have tracked us down, and now surround us; their eyes are set to cast us to the ground,
- מַעְגָּל magâlentrenchmenttranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H4570Noun · Translated: paths 5, path 4, ways 2, tracks 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Proverbs 2:18 For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits.
Isaiah 59:8 The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace.
- סָפַר sâpharcounttranslated this way 1 time of its 154 uses · Strong’s H5608Verb · Translated: scribe 41, count 19, told 15, declare 13Full study and all 150 verses →
Genesis 41:49 So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance, like the sand of the sea, that he stopped keeping track of it; for it was beyond measure.
- יָדַע yâdaknowtranslated this way 1 time of its 914 uses · Strong’s H3045Verb · Translated: know 453, known 53, knows 48, knew 38Full study and all 863 verses →
- שָׁעַר shâarcalculate, reakontranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H8176Verb · Translated: keeping track 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Proverbs 23:7 for he is keeping track, inwardly counting the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
- חָפַשׂ châphassearchtranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s H2664Verb · Translated: search 4, disguised 4, disguise 2Full study and all 20 verses →
Amos 9:3 Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.
- הָלַךְ hâlakgo, come, walktranslated this way 1 time of its 1,461 uses · Strong’s H1980Verb · Translated: go 338, went 173, walk 116, Come 84Full study and all 1,299 verses →
- עָקֹב âqôbinsidious, deceitfultranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6121Adjective · Translated: uneven 1, deceitful 1, tracked with footprints 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Hosea 6:8 Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with footprints of blood.
- עָקֵב âqêbheel, footprint, hinderparttranslated this way 1 time of its 13 uses · Strong’s H6119Noun · Translated: heel 4, heels 2Full study and all 13 verses →
Song of Solomon 1:8 If you do not know, O fairest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and graze your young goats near the tents of the shepherds.
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.