Word study

Useless

4 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “useless”. 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 “useless” 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)

  • לֹא lônottranslated this way 3 times of its 4,657 uses · Strong’s H3808Adverb  ·  Translated: no 309, not 269, never 218, will not 156Full study and all 3,775 verses →
  • בָּלַע bâlaswallow down, swallow up, engulftranslated this way 1 time of its 49 uses · Strong’s H1104Verb  ·  Translated: swallowed 19, swallow 12, swallows 3

    Psalm 107:27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless.

    Full study and all 48 verses →
  • יָעַל yâalprofit, avail, benefittranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s H3276Verb  ·  Translated: profit 5, benefit 4, worthless 2, idols 2

    Isaiah 30:5 everyone will be put to shame because of a people useless to them. They bring neither help nor benefit, but only shame and disgrace.”

    Full study and all 21 verses →
  • חִנָּם chinnâmout of favourtranslated this way 1 time of its 31 uses · Strong’s H2600Adverb  ·  Translated: without cause 12, nothing 3, needless 2, cost me nothing 2

    Malachi 1:10 “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.

    Full study and all 30 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

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.