Word study
Wide
8 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “wide”. 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 “wide” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רֹחַב rôchabbreadth, widthtranslated this way 65 times of its 95 uses · Strong’s H7341Noun · Translated: wide 65, width 14, thick 3, deep 3Full study and all 88 verses →
Genesis 6:15 And this is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.
Exodus 25:10 And they are to construct an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.
- רָחָב râchâbwide, broadtranslated this way 5 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s H7342Adjective · Translated: spacious 5, wide 5, proud 2Full study and all 20 verses →
Job 30:14 They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in.
Psalm 104:25 Here is the sea, vast and wide, teeming with creatures beyond number, living things both great and small.
- פָּתַח pâthachopentranslated this way 3 times of its 141 uses · Strong’s H6605Verb · Translated: open 50, opened 40, engrave 4, opens 3Full study and all 133 verses →
Deuteronomy 15:11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land.
Joshua 8:17 Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, leaving the city wide open while they pursued Israel.
- טֹפַח ṭôphachspan, hand-breadthtranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H2948Noun · Translated: handbreadth 3, handbreadth wide 2Full study and all 5 verses →
Exodus 25:25 And make a rim around it a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim.
Exodus 37:12 And he made a rim around it a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim.
- גָּלָה gâlâhuncover, removetranslated this way 2 times of its 170 uses · Strong’s H1540Verb · Translated: revealed 14, uncovered 13, exiled 12, sexual relations 11Full study and all 161 verses →
Numbers 24:4 the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who bows down with eyes wide open:
Numbers 24:16 the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who bows down with eyes wide open:
- רַב rabmuch, many, greattranslated this way 2 times of its 445 uses · Strong’s H7227Adjective · Translated: many 171, great 65, captain 24, long 14Full study and all 426 verses →
1 Samuel 26:13 Then David crossed to the other side and stood atop the mountain at a distance; there was a wide gulf between them.
Psalm 110:6 He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead; He will crush the leaders far and wide.
- פְּתַי pethaybreadthtranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H6613Noun · Translated: wide 2Full study and all 2 verses →
Ezra 6:3 In the first year of King Cyrus, he issued a decree concerning the house of God in Jerusalem: Let the house be rebuilt as a place for offering sacrifices, and let its foundations be firmly laid. It is to be sixty cubits high and sixty cubits wide,
Daniel 3:1 King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon.
- רָחַב râchabbe, or grow, wide, largetranslated this way 2 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H7337Verb · Translated: enlarges 4, enlarge 4, broaden 2Full study and all 23 verses →
Isaiah 30:33 For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.
Isaiah 57:8 Behind the door and doorpost you have set up your memorial. Forsaking Me, you uncovered your bed; you climbed up and opened it wide. And you have made a pact with those whose bed you have loved; you have gazed upon their nakedness.
Greek words (New Testament)
- πλατύνω platýnōI enlargetranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4115Verb · Translated: open wide 2, broaden 1Full study and all 3 verses →
2 Corinthians 6:11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our hearts are open wide.
2 Corinthians 6:13 As a fair exchange— I speak as to my children— open wide your hearts also.
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.