Word study
Wander
7 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: wander, wandered, wandering, wanders, wanderings. 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 “wander” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- הָלַךְ hâlakgo, come, walktranslated this way 12 times of its 1,461 uses · Strong’s H1980Verb · Translated: go 338, went 173, walk 116, Come 84Full study and all 1,299 verses →
Joshua 5:6 For the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness forty years, until all the nation’s men of war who had come out of Egypt had died, since they did not obey the LORD. So the LORD vowed never to let them see the land He had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Judges 11:37 She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander for two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.”
- תָּעָה tââherrtranslated this way 7 times of its 49 uses · Strong’s H8582Verb · Translated: astray 5, go astray 4, wandered 3, stray 3Full study and all 45 verses →
Genesis 21:14 Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
Job 12:24 He deprives the earth’s leaders of reason and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
- נוּעַ nûaquiver, wave, waver, tremble, tottertranslated this way 5 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H5128Verb · Translated: shake 5, sway 3, shakes 3, fugitive 2Full study and all 36 verses →
Numbers 32:13 The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation who had done evil in His sight was gone.
Psalm 109:10 May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes.
- סָבַב sâbabturn about, go around, surroundtranslated this way 2 times of its 153 uses · Strong’s H5437Verb · Translated: turned 16, surrounded 13, surround 10, turn 8Full study and all 144 verses →
Deuteronomy 2:1 Then we turned back and headed for the wilderness by way of the Red Sea, as the LORD had instructed me, and for many days we wandered around Mount Seir.
Deuteronomy 2:3 “You have been wandering around this hill country long enough; turn to the north
- אָבַד âbadperishtranslated this way 2 times of its 179 uses · Strong’s H6Verb · Translated: perish 53, destroy 27, perished 15, destroyed 14Full study and all 173 verses →
Deuteronomy 26:5 and you are to declare before the LORD your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous.
1 Samuel 9:3 One day the donkeys of Saul’s father Kish wandered off, and Kish said to his son Saul, “Take one of the servants and go look for the donkeys.”
- מָרוּד mârûdrestlessness, straying (?)translated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H4788Noun · Translated: wandering 2, homeless 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Lamentations 1:7 In the days of her affliction and wandering Jerusalem remembers all the treasures that were hers in days of old. When her people fell into enemy hands she received no help. Her enemies looked upon her, laughing at her downfall.
Lamentations 3:19 Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
- נָדַד nâdadretreat, flee, depart, stray, wander, fluttertranslated this way 2 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H5074Verb · Translated: fled 4, flee 4, wanders 2, flees 2Full study and all 25 verses →
Job 15:23 He wanders about as food for vultures; he knows the day of darkness is at hand.
Proverbs 27:8 Like a bird that strays from its nest is a man who wanders from his home.
Greek words (New Testament)
- πλανάω planáōI lead astray, deceivetranslated this way 3 times of its 39 uses · Strong’s G4105Verb · Translated: deceived 10, deceive 7, deceives 3, deceiving 2Full study and all 37 verses →
Hebrews 11:38 The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.
James 5:19 My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back,
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.