Word study
Worker
5 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: workers, worker. 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 “worker” 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)
- פָּעַל pâaldo, maketranslated this way 12 times of its 57 uses · Strong’s H6466Verb · Translated: workers 12, evildoers 8, done 6, do 3Full study and all 56 verses →
Job 31:3 Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?
Psalm 5:5 The boastful cannot stand in Your presence; You hate all workers of iniquity.
- עָשָׂה âsâhdo, maketranslated this way 6 times of its 2,478 uses · Strong’s H6213Verb · Translated: done 292, made 265, make 143, did 112Full study and all 2,206 verses →
- עָבַד âbadwork, servetranslated this way 4 times of its 286 uses · Strong’s H5647Verb · Translated: serve 110, served 44, worship 32, work 9Full study and all 259 verses →
Ecclesiastes 5:12 The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich man permits him no sleep.
Isaiah 19:9 The workers in flax will be dismayed, and the weavers of fine linen will turn pale.
- שָׂכִיר sâkîrhiredtranslated this way 3 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H7916Adjective · Translated: hired hand 7, hired worker 3Full study and all 17 verses →
Leviticus 25:40 Let him stay with you as a hired worker or temporary resident; he is to work for you until the Year of Jubilee.
Isaiah 16:14 And now the LORD says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts the years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, with all her many people. And those who are left will be few and feeble.”
- מְלָאכָה melâkâhoccupation, worktranslated this way 2 times of its 142 uses · Strong’s H4399Noun · Translated: work 86, regular work 10, craft 3, service 3Full study and all 131 verses →
2 Chronicles 34:17 They have paid out the money that was found in the house of the LORD and have put it into the hands of the supervisors and workers.”
Nehemiah 2:16 The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for I had not yet told the Jews or priests or nobles or officials or any other workers.
Greek words (New Testament)
- συνεργός synergósa fellow workertranslated this way 13 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s G4904Adjective · Translated: fellow workers 7, fellow worker 6Full study and all 13 verses →
Romans 16:3 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,
1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
- ἐργάτης ergátēsa field-laborer, workmantranslated this way 11 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s G2040Noun · Translated: workers 8, worker 3, workmen 2, evildoers 1Full study and all 14 verses →
Matthew 9:37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
Luke 10:2 And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.
- ἐργάζομαι ergázomaiI word, trade, dotranslated this way 2 times of its 39 uses · Strong’s G2038Verb · Translated: work 10, doing 4, worked 4, done 2Full study and all 37 verses →
Matthew 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’
Romans 4:4 Now the wages of the worker are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation.
- συνεργέω synergéōI work togethertranslated this way 2 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G4903Verb · Translated: worked 1, works all things together 1, fellow worker 1, fellow workers 1Full study and all 5 verses →
1 Corinthians 16:16 to submit to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer.
2 Corinthians 6:1 As God’s fellow workers, then, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.
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.