Word study

Various

4 Hebrew and 5 Greek words behind this English word

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

  • אַחֵר achêranothertranslated this way 1 time of its 164 uses · Strong’s H312Adjective  ·  Translated: other 79, another 46, others 9, more 4

    Judges 2:12 Thus they forsook the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they followed after various gods of the peoples around them. They bowed down to them and provoked the LORD to anger,

    Full study and all 159 verses →
  • רִקְמָה riqmâhvariegated stufftranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s H7553Noun  ·  Translated: embroidered 4, embroidered cloth 2, embroidered work 2, stones of various colors 1

    1 Chronicles 29:2 Now with all my ability I have made provision for the house of my God — gold for the gold articles, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron, and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones, and slabs of marble — all in abundance.

    Full study and all 11 verses →
  • זַן zankind, sorttranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H2177Noun  ·  Translated: various 1, manner 1, produce 1

    2 Chronicles 16:14 And he was buried in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bier that was full of spices and various blended perfumes; then they made a great fire in his honor.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • עֵרֶב êrebmixture, mixed companytranslated this way 1 time of its 15 uses · Strong’s H6154Noun  ·  Translated: knit 9, mixed tribes 2, mixed 1, foreign descent 1

    Ezekiel 30:5 Cush, Put, and Lud, and all the various peoples, as well as Libya and the men of the covenant land, will fall with Egypt by the sword.

    Full study and all 15 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ποικίλος poikílosvarious, of different colorstranslated this way 6 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G4164Adjective  ·  Translated: various 6, sorts 1, kinds 1, many kinds 1

    Matthew 4:24 News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering acute pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them.

    Mark 1:34 And He healed many who were ill with various diseases and drove out many demons. But He would not allow the demons to speak, because they knew who He was.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • κατά katádown from, against, according to, throughout, duringtranslated this way 2 times of its 381 uses · Strong’s G2596Preposition  ·  Translated: according 65, against 46, in 41, by 38

    Mark 13:8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, as well as famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

    Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilences in various places, along with fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

    Full study and all 349 verses →
  • τὶς tìsany one, some onetranslated this way 1 time of its 449 uses · Strong’s G5100Interrogative / Indefinite Pronoun  ·  Translated: some 96, anyone 96, a 65, anything 30Full study and all 420 verses →
  • γλῶσσα glōssathe tongue, a language, nationtranslated this way 1 time of its 49 uses · Strong’s G1100Noun  ·  Translated: tongue 24, tongues 23, speaking in various tongues 1, speech 1

    1 Corinthians 12:10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in various tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

    Full study and all 47 verses →
  • γένος génosoffspring, family, race, kindtranslated this way 1 time of its 16 uses · Strong’s G1085Noun  ·  Translated: people 3, offspring 3, family 2, native 2

    1 Corinthians 12:28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, and those with gifts of healing, helping, administration, and various tongues.

    Full study and all 16 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.