Word study

Wage

4 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word

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

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πολεμέω poleméōI make war, contendtranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G4170Verb  ·  Translated: wage war 2, fought 2, fight 1, make war 1

    Revelation 2:16 Therefore repent! Otherwise I will come to you shortly and wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.

    Revelation 13:4 They worshiped the dragon who had given authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?”

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • ποιέω poiéōI do, maketranslated this way 2 times of its 544 uses · Strong’s G4160Verb  ·  Translated: do 50, done 44, doing 40, made 34

    Revelation 11:7 When the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will wage war with them, and will overpower and kill them.

    Revelation 19:19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army.

    Full study and all 494 verses →
  • στρατεύομαι strateúomaiI wage war, fighttranslated this way 1 time of its 7 uses · Strong’s G4754Verb  ·  Translated: war 2, soldiers 1, serves as a soldier 1, wage war 1

    2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • πόλεμος pólemosa war, battle, strifetranslated this way 1 time of its 18 uses · Strong’s G4171Noun  ·  Translated: battle 6, wars 5, war 5, conflicts 1

    Revelation 13:7 Then the beast was permitted to wage war against the saints and to conquer them, and it was given authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation.

    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.