Word study
Wag
8 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: wages, waged, waging, wag. 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 “wag” 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)
- שָׂכָר sâkârhire, wagestranslated this way 14 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H7939Noun · Translated: wages 13, reward 6Full study and all 24 verses →
Genesis 30:28 And he added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
Exodus 2:9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him.
- לָחַם lâchamfight, do battletranslated this way 8 times of its 175 uses · Strong’s H3898Verb · Translated: fight 77, fought 45, fighting 16, waged war 6Full study and all 170 verses →
Judges 11:27 I have not sinned against you, but you have done me wrong by waging war against me. May the LORD, the Judge, decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
1 Kings 14:19 As for the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he waged war and how he reigned, they are indeed written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
- עָשָׂה âsâhdo, maketranslated this way 5 times of its 2,478 uses · Strong’s H6213Verb · Translated: done 292, made 265, make 143, did 112Full study and all 2,206 verses →
Deuteronomy 20:20 But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce fruit. Use them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.
- אֶתְנַן ethnanhiretranslated this way 4 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H868Noun · Translated: wages 4, hire 2Full study and all 8 verses →
Deuteronomy 23:18 You must not bring the wages of a prostitute, whether female or male, into the house of the LORD your God to fulfill any vow, because both are detestable to the LORD your God.
Isaiah 23:18 Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.
- מַשְׂכֹּרֶת maskôrethwagestranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H4909Noun · Translated: wages 3, reward 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Genesis 29:15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are my relative, should you work for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
Genesis 31:7 And although he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, God has not allowed him to harm me.
- שָׂכִיר sâkîrhiredtranslated this way 2 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H7916Adjective · Translated: hired hand 7, hired worker 3Full study and all 17 verses →
Leviticus 25:50 He and his purchaser will then count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price of his sale will be determined by the number of years, based on the daily wages of a hired hand.
Malachi 3:5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- פֹּעַל pôaldoing, deed, worktranslated this way 2 times of its 37 uses · Strong’s H6467Noun · Translated: work 16, deeds 3, exploits 2, wages 2Full study and all 37 verses →
Job 7:2 Like a slave he longs for shade; like a hireling he waits for his wages.
Jeremiah 22:13 “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
- מִלְחָמָה milchâmâhbattle, wartranslated this way 2 times of its 298 uses · Strong’s H4421Noun · Translated: battle 135, war 96, fight 11, army 5Full study and all 289 verses →
2 Samuel 21:15 Once again the Philistines waged war against Israel, and David and his servants went down and fought against the Philistines. But David became exhausted.
1 Kings 5:3 “As you are well aware, due to the wars waged on all sides against my father David, he could not build a house for the Name of the LORD his God until the LORD had put his enemies under his feet.
Greek words (New Testament)
- μισθός misthóswages, rewardtranslated this way 8 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s G3408Noun · Translated: reward 15, wages 8, full reward 3, profit 1Full study and all 26 verses →
Matthew 20:8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last ones hired and moving on to the first.’
Luke 10:7 Stay at the same house, eating and drinking whatever you are offered. For the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
- ὀψώνιον opsṓnionpay, wagestranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G3800Noun · Translated: wages 2, expense 1, support 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Luke 3:14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” “Do not take money by force or false accusation,” he said. “Be content with your wages.”
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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.
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.