Word study
Whenever
9 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “whenever”. 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 “whenever” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- כֹּל kôlthe whole, alltranslated this way 9 times of its 5,107 uses · Strong’s H3605Noun · Translated: all 1,589, and all 471, whole 223, every 196Full study and all 4,112 verses →
Genesis 30:41 Whenever the stronger females of the flock were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they would breed in front of the branches.
- בּוֹא bôcome in, come, go in, gotranslated this way 6 times of its 2,442 uses · Strong’s H935Verb · Translated: come 358, came 298, bring 209, brought 201Full study and all 2,217 verses →
Exodus 28:29 Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he shall bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastpiece of judgment, as a continual reminder before the LORD.
Exodus 28:30 And place the Urim and Thummim in the breastpiece of judgment, so that they will also be over Aaron’s heart whenever he comes before the LORD. Aaron will continually carry the judgment of the sons of Israel over his heart before the LORD.
- הָיָה hâyâhfall out, come to pass, become, betranslated this way 5 times of its 2,848 uses · Strong’s H1961Verb · Translated: will be 206, become 178, came 169, was 151Full study and all 2,573 verses →
- דַּי daysufficiency, enoughtranslated this way 5 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H1767Noun · Translated: enough 6, whenever 5, from 2, often 2Full study and all 29 verses →
1 Samuel 1:7 And this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival taunted her until she wept and would not eat.
1 Kings 14:28 And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guards would bear the shields, and later they would return them to the guardroom.
- כִּי kîburning, brandingtranslated this way 3 times of its 3,991 uses · Strong’s H3588Conjunction · Translated: for 1,770, that 572, because 523, when 194Full study and all 3,583 verses →
Exodus 18:16 “Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me to judge between one man and another, and I make known to them the statutes and laws of God.”
- אִם imiftranslated this way 2 times of its 889 uses · Strong’s H518Conjunction · Translated: if 398, but if 95, or 64, and if 36Full study and all 761 verses →
Genesis 38:9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not belong to him; so whenever he would sleep with his brother’s wife, he would spill his seed on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother.
Judges 6:3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,
- מֹשֶׁה MôshehMosestranslated this way 2 times of its 754 uses · Strong’s H4872Noun · Translated: Moses 718, whenever moses 2, Next 2, Moses in marriage 1Full study and all 697 verses →
Exodus 33:8 Then, whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would stand at the entrances to their own tents and watch Moses until he entered the tent.
Exodus 34:34 But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would remove the veil until he came out. And when he came out, he would tell the Israelites what he had been commanded,
- יוֹם yômdaytranslated this way 2 times of its 2,013 uses · Strong’s H3117Noun · Translated: day 1,009, days 524, today 141, time 72Full study and all 1,744 verses →
- מִשְׁכָּן mishkândwelling-place, 'tabernacle'translated this way 2 times of its 134 uses · Strong’s H4908Noun · Translated: tabernacle 101, dwellings 10, dwelling place 6, dwelling 4Full study and all 128 verses →
Numbers 1:51 Whenever the tabernacle is to move, the Levites are to take it down, and whenever it is to be pitched, the Levites are to set it up. Any outsider who goes near it must be put to death.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὅταν hótanwhen, whensoevertranslated this way 2 times of its 108 uses · Strong’s G3752Conjunction · Translated: when 88, soon 6, after 6, whenever 2Full study and all 106 verses →
Mark 14:7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them whenever you want. But you will not always have Me.
Revelation 4:9 And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever,
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.