Word study
Wiser
4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “wiser”. 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 “wiser” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- חָכַם châkambe wisetranslated this way 4 times of its 27 uses · Strong’s H2449Verb · Translated: wise 13, wiser 2, skillfully 2, become wise 2Full study and all 26 verses →
1 Kings 4:31 He was wiser than all men— wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and wiser than Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread throughout the surrounding nations.
Job 35:11 who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
- חָכָם châkâmwisetranslated this way 2 times of its 136 uses · Strong’s H2450Adjective · Translated: wise 86, wise men 8, wise man 6, skilled 5Full study and all 133 verses →
Proverbs 26:16 The slacker is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly.
Ezekiel 28:3 Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you!
- אֵיתָן ÊythânEthantranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H387Noun · Translated: Ethan 7, wiser than ethan 1Full study and all 8 verses →
1 Kings 4:31 He was wiser than all men— wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and wiser than Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread throughout the surrounding nations.
- הֵימָן HêmânHemantranslated this way 1 time of its 15 uses · Strong’s H1968Noun · Translated: Heman 14, wiser than heman 1Full study and all 14 verses →
1 Kings 4:31 He was wiser than all men— wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and wiser than Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread throughout the surrounding nations.
Greek words (New Testament)
- σοφός sophóswisetranslated this way 1 time of its 20 uses · Strong’s G4680Adjective · Translated: wise 17, to 1, wiser 1, expert 1Full study and all 19 verses →
1 Corinthians 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
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.