Word study
Wealthy
6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “wealthy”. 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 “wealthy” 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)
- עָשִׁיר âshîrrichtranslated this way 3 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H6223Adjective · Translated: rich 14, rich man 5, wealthy 1, wealth 1Full study and all 23 verses →
Job 27:19 He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
Jeremiah 9:23 This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches.
- גָּדוֹל gâdôlgreattranslated this way 2 times of its 501 uses · Strong’s H1419Adjective · Translated: great 262, large 33, high 20, loud 14Full study and all 477 verses →
1 Samuel 25:2 Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very wealthy man with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.
2 Samuel 19:32 Barzillai was quite old, eighty years of age, and since he was a very wealthy man, he had provided for the king while he stayed in Mahanaim.
- כָּבֵד kâbêdheavytranslated this way 1 time of its 40 uses · Strong’s H3515Adjective · Translated: heavy 7, severe 6, large 4, great 4Full study and all 39 verses →
Genesis 13:2 And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.
- גָּדֵל gâdêlbecoming great, growing uptranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H1432Verb · Translated: wealthy 1, stature 1, lustful 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Genesis 26:13 and he became richer and richer, until he was exceedingly wealthy.
- חַיִל chayilstrength, efficiency, wealth, armytranslated this way 1 time of its 233 uses · Strong’s H2428Noun · Translated: army 73, valor 49, wealth 26, strength 9Full study and all 219 verses →
2 Kings 15:20 Menahem exacted this money from each of the wealthy men of Israel — fifty shekels of silver from each man — to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria withdrew and did not remain in the land.
- מֵחַ mêachfatlingtranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H4220Noun · Translated: fatlings 1, wealthy 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Isaiah 5:17 Lambs will graze as in their own pastures, and strangers will feed in the ruins of the wealthy.
Greek words (New Testament)
- πλούσιος ploúsiosrichtranslated this way 2 times of its 28 uses · Strong’s G4145Adjective · Translated: rich 20, rich man 5, wealthy 2, rich man's 1Full study and all 28 verses →
Luke 18:23 But when the ruler heard this, he became very sad, because he was extremely wealthy.
Luke 19:2 And there was a man named Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, who was very wealthy.
- πλουτέω ploutéōI become richtranslated this way 2 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s G4147Verb · Translated: rich 4, become rich 3, grown wealthy 2, gives richly 1Full study and all 12 verses →
Revelation 3:17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
Revelation 18:3 All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality. The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.”
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.