Introduction
Below I present the various Hebrew and Greek words that
have been translated as ‘praise’ and ‘worship’. For each word I
give its definition and a few references to verses of scripture containing
it. The number in square brackets is the word’s index number in Strong’s
Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible where a normal typeface, [1234],
denotes a Hebrew word and and italic typeface, [1234], denotes a
Greek one. Following the word’s index number and its spelling comes its
pronunciation (transliteration). For both Greek and Hebrew I have given
the pronunciation in italics. In each quotation I have given the English
word or words that refer to the original word this
typeface. Unless stated otherwise, the scriptures quoted
are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Sometimes, to make the
meaning more clear, I have substituted certain phrases of the verse with
their equivalents from the AV. When this occurs, the original wording of
the NASB phrase is placed in square brackets.
After the definition and scripture quotations that
employ the words ‘praise’ or ‘worship’ I show other verses that
contain the same Hebrew/Greek words but which have been translated other
than ‘praise’ or ‘worship’; these verses appear under the heading
‘Other renderings’. For example, the Hebrew word 
(yadah), as well as being translated ‘praise’ is also rendered
‘make confession’ and ‘thank’ in the AV. This helps to build up a
fuller understanding of the words and thus of praise and worship. For
instance, to learn that a word rendered ‘praise’ is also translated
‘confessing’ gives us some interesting insight into the subject of
praise.
Finally, there is a form at the bottom of each
definition page that allows you to look the word up in Strong's
Concordance and find all the other verses that use it. The on-line
concordance is provided by Blue
Letter Bible
I hope that this provides an interesting and helpful
look at the root meanings of two words we tend to take for granted. It is
quite unfortunate that we are not all Hebrew and Greek speakers as there
is a wealth of linguistic and cultural meaning in the bible that has been
hidden by the translation process.
Sadly the church has alienated itself from its Jewish
roots. This began in the early days of the church as its gentile
membership inevitably grew. Persecution of Jewish members followed and has
continued right into the present. Consequently the body of Christ is
missing some vital limbs and organs. Happily, the recent rise of the
so-called ‘Messianic Jewish’ movement is starting to bring some of the
Jewishness back into the church.
Let’s look at the words praise and worship and dig up some treasure.
To look at the subjects of praise and worship go back to the last
page and then click on the relevant link on the left-hand menu bar, or
use the links below.
[ Introduction ] [ Praise ] [ Worship ]
