Word study
Wake
4 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: wake, wakes. 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 “wake” 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)
- קוּץ qûtsawaketranslated this way 6 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H6974Verb · Translated: wake 6, awake 6, awakened 2, awakens 2Full study and all 21 verses →
1 Samuel 26:12 So David took the spear and water jug by Saul’s head, and they departed. No one saw them or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up; they all remained asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen on them.
Psalm 3:5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
- עוּר ûrrouse oneself, awaketranslated this way 2 times of its 80 uses · Strong’s H5782Verb · Translated: Awake 19, stirred 9, awaken 6, rouse 5Full study and all 65 verses →
Psalm 44:23 Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.
Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?
- נָתִיב nâthîbpath, pathwaytranslated this way 1 time of its 23 uses · Strong’s H5410Noun · Translated: paths 9, path 8, way 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Job 41:32 He leaves a glistening wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair!
- מְסִלָּה mesillâhhighwaytranslated this way 1 time of its 27 uses · Strong’s H4546Noun · Translated: highway 8, road 7, roads 3, highways 2Full study and all 26 verses →
Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐγείρω egeírōI wake, arouse, raise uptranslated this way 3 times of its 144 uses · Strong’s G1453Verb · Translated: raised 53, Get 18, risen 13, got 11Full study and all 138 verses →
Mark 4:27 Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how.
Romans 13:11 And do this, understanding the occasion. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
- γρηγορεύω grēgoreúōI am awake, am vigilant, watchtranslated this way 2 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s G1127Verb · Translated: keep watch 9, alert 3, Watch 3, Wake 2Full study and all 22 verses →
Revelation 3:2 Wake up and strengthen what remains, which is about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.
Revelation 3:3 Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.
- ἐξυπνίζω exypnízōI wake out of sleeptranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G1852Verb · Translated: wake 1Full study and its 1 verse →
John 11:11 After He had said this, He told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.”
- ὁδός hodósa way, road, journeytranslated this way 1 time of its 97 uses · Strong’s G3598Noun · Translated: way 49, road 22, path 8, ways 6Full study and all 95 verses →
Romans 3:16 ruin and misery lie in their wake,
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.