Word study

Wherever

6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “wherever”. 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 “wherever” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • כֹּל kôlthe whole, alltranslated this way 26 times of its 5,107 uses · Strong’s H3605Noun  ·  Translated: all 1,589, and all 471, whole 223, every 196

    Genesis 20:13 So when God had me journey from my father’s house, I said to Sarah, ‘This is how you can show your loyalty to me: Wherever we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

    Genesis 28:15 Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

    Full study and all 4,112 verses →
  • אֲשֶׁר ăsherparticle of relationtranslated this way 8 times of its 3,225 uses · Strong’s H834Pronoun  ·  Translated: that 886, who 451, as 247, which 160

    Exodus 5:11 Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it; but your workload will in no way be reduced.’”

    Full study and all 2,844 verses →
  • מָקוֹם mâqômstanding, spot, conditiontranslated this way 7 times of its 381 uses · Strong’s H4725Noun  ·  Translated: place 279, home 16, places 11, wherever 7

    Numbers 9:17 Whenever the cloud was lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites would set out, and wherever the cloud settled, there the Israelites would camp.

    Deuteronomy 23:16 Let him live among you wherever he chooses, in the town of his pleasing. Do not oppress him.

    Full study and all 364 verses →
  • אֵל êlmotion totranslated this way 4 times of its 4,199 uses · Strong’s H413Preposition  ·  Translated: to 1,941, to me 285, to you 149, to him 137Full study and all 3,455 verses →
  • דֶּרֶךְ derekway, road, distance, journey, mannertranslated this way 3 times of its 653 uses · Strong’s H1870Noun  ·  Translated: way 204, ways 166, road 54, journey 35

    Genesis 35:3 Then let us arise and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to God, who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.”

    1 Kings 8:44 When Your people go to war against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to the LORD in the direction of the city You have chosen and the house I have built for Your Name,

    Full study and all 595 verses →
  • נֶפֶשׁ nepheshsoul, living being, life, self, person, desire, appetite, emotion, and passiontranslated this way 2 times of its 666 uses · Strong’s H5315Noun  ·  Translated: soul 178, life 119, lives 30, person 22

    Deuteronomy 21:14 And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

    Jeremiah 34:16 But now you have changed your minds and profaned My name. Each of you has taken back the menservants and maidservants whom you had set at liberty to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.

    Full study and all 622 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ὅπου hópouwhere, whithertranslated this way 10 times of its 78 uses · Strong’s G3699Adverb  ·  Translated: where 54, wherever 10

    Matthew 8:19 And one of the scribes came to Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

    Mark 6:55 and ran through that whole region, carrying the sick on mats to wherever they heard He was.

    Full study and all 72 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.