Word study

Trust

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: trust, trusted, trusts, trusting. 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 “trust” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • בָּטַח bâṭachtrusttranslated this way 94 times of its 120 uses · Strong’s H982Verb  ·  Translated: trust 51, trusts 15, trusted 11, trusting 6

    Deuteronomy 28:52 They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you.

    2 Kings 18:5 Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. No king of Judah was like him, either before him or after him.

    Full study and all 117 verses →
  • אָמַן âmanconfirm, supporttranslated this way 11 times of its 104 uses · Strong’s H539Verb  ·  Translated: believe 24, faithful 14, trust 8, believed 7

    Exodus 19:9 The LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear when I speak with you, and they will always put their trust in you.” And Moses relayed to the LORD what the people had said.

    Numbers 20:12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me to show My holiness in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

    Full study and all 98 verses →
  • מִבְטָח mibṭâchconfidencetranslated this way 6 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H4009Noun  ·  Translated: trust 4, confidence 4, security 2

    Psalm 40:4 Blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, who has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.

    Proverbs 21:22 A wise man scales the city of the mighty and pulls down the stronghold in which they trust.

    Full study and all 15 verses →
  • חָסָה châsâhseek refugetranslated this way 2 times of its 37 uses · Strong’s H2620Verb  ·  Translated: take refuge 21, find refuge 3, refuge 2, seek refuge 2

    Nahum 1:7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of distress; He cares for those who trust in Him.

    Zephaniah 3:12 But I will leave within you a meek and humble people, and they will trust in the name of the LORD.

    Full study and all 36 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πείθω peíthōI persuade, urgetranslated this way 5 times of its 50 uses · Strong’s G3982Verb  ·  Translated: convinced 10, confident 6, persuaded 4, trusted 2

    Matthew 27:43 He trusts in God. Let God deliver Him now if He wants Him. For He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

    Luke 11:22 But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted, and then he divides up his plunder.

    Full study and all 50 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.

What the Bible says about trust: 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.