Word study
Uprightness
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “uprightness”. 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 “uprightness” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- יֹשֶׁר yôsherstraightness, uprightnesstranslated this way 4 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H3476Noun · Translated: uprightness 4, upright 3, right 2, straight 2Full study and all 14 verses →
Deuteronomy 9:5 It is not because of your righteousness or uprightness of heart that you are going in to possess their land, but it is because of their wickedness that the LORD your God is driving out these nations before you, to keep the promise He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
1 Kings 9:4 And as for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and uprightness, doing all I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances,
- קוֹמְמִיּוּת qômemîûthuprightnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H6968Adverb · Translated: uprightness 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Leviticus 26:13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness.
- יִשְׁרָה yishrâhuprightnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H3483Noun · Translated: uprightness 1Full study and its 1 verse →
1 Kings 3:6 Solomon replied, “You have shown much loving devotion to Your servant, my father David, because he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart. And You have maintained this loving devotion by giving him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
- מֵישָׁר mêshârevenness, uprightness, equitytranslated this way 1 time of its 18 uses · Strong’s H4339Noun · Translated: equity 6, right 5Full study and all 18 verses →
1 Chronicles 29:17 I know, my God, that You test the heart and delight in uprightness. All these things I have given willingly and with an upright heart, and now I have seen Your people who are present here giving joyfully and willingly to You.
- תֹּם tômcompleteness, integritytranslated this way 1 time of its 22 uses · Strong’s H8537Noun · Translated: integrity 14, without taking special aim 2Full study and all 22 verses →
Job 4:6 Is your reverence not your confidence, and the uprightness of your ways your hope?
- יָשָׁר yâshârstraight, righttranslated this way 1 time of its 119 uses · Strong’s H3477Adjective · Translated: upright 54, right 41, seems right 4, Jashar 2Full study and all 119 verses →
Psalm 111:8 They are upheld forever and ever, enacted in truth and uprightness.
- מִישׁוֹר mîshôrlevel place, uprightnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s H4334Noun · Translated: plateau 8, plain 2, level ground 2, level 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Malachi 2:6 True instruction was in his mouth, and nothing false was found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.
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 uprightness: 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.