Word study

Uproot

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נָתַשׁ nâthashpull or pluck up, root outtranslated this way 19 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H5428Verb  ·  Translated: uproot 10, uprooted 8, uproot israel 1, run dry 1

    Deuteronomy 29:28 The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’

    1 Kings 14:15 For the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that He gave their fathers, and He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking the LORD to anger.

    Full study and all 19 verses →
  • נָסַח nâsachpull or tear awaytranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H5255Verb  ·  Translated: uprooted 2, tear you away 1, tears 1

    Deuteronomy 28:63 Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.

    Proverbs 2:22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • שָׁרַשׁ shârashdeal with the rootstranslated this way 2 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H8327Verb  ·  Translated: taken root 2

    Job 31:8 then may another eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.

    Psalm 52:5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah

    Full study and all 8 verses →
  • נָסַע nâsapull out or up, set out, journeytranslated this way 2 times of its 146 uses · Strong’s H5265Verb  ·  Translated: set 91, journeyed 4, moved 4, pulled 4

    Job 19:10 He tears me down on every side until I am gone; He uproots my hope like a tree.

    Psalm 80:8 You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and transplanted it.

    Full study and all 139 verses →
  • עָקַר âqarpluck or root uptranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H6131Verb  ·  Translated: hamstrung 3, hamstring 2, uproot 1, uprooted 1

    Ecclesiastes 3:2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

    Zephaniah 2:4 For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon left in ruins. Ashdod will be driven out at noon, and Ekron will be uprooted.

    Full study and all 7 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ἐκριζόω ekrizóōI root out, root uptranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G1610Verb  ·  Translated: uprooted 2, uproot 1, pulled up by its roots 1

    Matthew 13:29 ‘No,’ he said, ‘if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them.

    Luke 17:6 And the Lord answered, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

    Full study and all 4 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.

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.