Word study
Trial
2 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: trial, trials. 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 “trial” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מַסָּה massâhdespairtranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H4531Noun · Translated: trials 3, despair 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Deuteronomy 4:34 Or has any god tried to take as his own a nation out of another nation — by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors — as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, before your eyes?
Deuteronomy 7:19 the great trials that you saw, the signs and wonders, and the mighty hand and outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear.
- מִשְׁפָּט mishpâṭjudgmenttranslated this way 2 times of its 406 uses · Strong’s H4941Noun · Translated: justice 111, ordinances 73, judgments 40, judgment 40Full study and all 394 verses →
Numbers 35:12 You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly.
Joshua 20:6 He is to stay in that city until he stands trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest serving at that time. Then the manslayer may return to his own home in the city from which he fled.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- πειρασμός peirasmóstrial, testing, temptationtranslated this way 8 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s G3986Noun · Translated: temptation 9, trials 5, testing 3, trial 3Full study and all 20 verses →
Luke 22:28 You are the ones who have stood by Me in My trials.
Acts 20:19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, especially in the trials that came upon me through the plots of the Jews.
- κρίνω krínōI judge, decide, think goodtranslated this way 4 times of its 114 uses · Strong’s G2919Verb · Translated: judge 43, judged 12, judges 7, decided 5Full study and all 98 verses →
Acts 23:6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. It is because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”
Acts 24:21 unless it was this one thing I called out as I stood in their presence: ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’”
- ἀκατάκριτος akatákritosuncondemnedtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G178Adjective · Translated: without a trial 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Acts 16:37 But Paul said to the officers, “They beat us publicly without a trial and threw us into prison, even though we are Roman citizens. And now do they want to send us away secretly? Absolutely not! Let them come themselves and escort us out!”
Acts 22:25 But as they stretched him out to strap him down, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman citizen without a trial?”
- θλῖψις thlîpsispersecution, affliction, distresstranslated this way 1 time of its 45 uses · Strong’s G2347Noun · Translated: tribulation 9, affliction 6, trouble 5, troubles 5Full study and all 43 verses →
1 Thessalonians 3:3 so that none of you would be shaken by these trials. For you know that we are destined for this.
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.
What the Bible says about trial: passages by topic →
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.