ἐπιζητέω
to seek for
‘to seek for’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Present-tense verb in the Greek New Testament →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Tense
- Present
- Ongoing or general action in present time (imperfective aspect).
- Aorist
- Action viewed as a simple whole, without regard to duration — often past (perfective aspect).
- Imperfect
- Continuous or repeated action in past time (“was writing”).
Voice
- Active
- The subject performs the action.
Mood
- Indicative
- States a fact or asks a factual question (the mood of reality).
- Participle
- A verbal adjective (“writing,” “having written”).
Case
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
Person
- 3rd person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one.
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Plural 3 times (23%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular 3 times (23%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 1st person, Singular 2 times (15%)
- Verb, Aorist, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular 1 time (8%)
- Verb, Aorist, Active, Participle, Nominative, Singular, Masculine 1 time (8%)
- Verb, Imperfect, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Plural 1 time (8%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 1st person, Plural 1 time (8%)
- Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 2nd person, Plural 1 time (8%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (Robinson–Tischendorf, public domain), counted across 13 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where G1934 appears — 12 distinct verses across 6 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Matthew 3 verses
- Matthew 6:32 ἐπιζητοῦσιν pres act ind 3pl For the Gentiles seek after all these things, for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
- Matthew 12:39 ἐπιζητεῖ pres act ind 3sg But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.
- Matthew 16:4 ἐπιζητεῖ pres act ind 3sg An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will be no sign given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah." He left them, and departed.
Luke 2 verses
- Luke 4:42 ἐπεζήτουν impf act ind 3pl When it was day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place, and the multitudes looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so that he wouldn't go away from them.
- Luke 12:30 ἐπιζητοῦσιν pres act ind 3pl For the nations of the world seek after all of these things, but your Father knows that you need these things.
Acts 3 verses
- Acts 12:19 ἐπιζητήσας aor act ptcp nom sg masc When Herod had sought for him, and didn't find him, he examined the guards, and commanded that they should be put to death. He went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there.
- Acts 13:7 ἐπεζήτησεν aor act ind 3sg who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of understanding. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God.
- Acts 19:39 ἐπιζητεῖτε pres act ind 2pl But if you seek anything about other matters, it will be settled in the regular assembly.
Romans 1 verse
Philippians 1 verse
Hebrews 2 verses
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Greek verb επιζητεω centers on the idea of “to seek for.” Its earliest occurrence is Matthew 6:32. The Greek New Testament uses it across 12 verses — uncommon. Matthew dominates its distribution — 3 of 12 verses. Thayer's distinguishes 3 senses for it. Dig into 12-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G1934 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 12
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 12 distinct verses.
- 6 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 6 of 27 New Testament books.
- #863
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Greek words (rank 863 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 12 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 12 distinct verses.
- Gospels 5 verses · 42%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 5 verses · 42%
- Pauline corpus 2 verses · 17%
- Hebrews 2 verses · 17%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: I desire 2×, Seek after 2×, Seeketh after 2×
- American Standard Version: Do 2×, I seek 2×, Seek 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Demands 2×, Strive after 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: I seek 2×, Seek 2×, Seeks 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G1934 across 18 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 10 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G1934 across 16 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G1934 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G1934 across 13 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in Thayer's
The 3 senses Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- to enquire for, seek for, search for, seek diligently
- to wish for, crave
- to demand, clamour for
Word origin
Derived from επι (epí) (G1909) — upon.
Forms in the corpus
The 8 distinct written forms G1934 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that tense’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| ἐπιζητεῖ epizēteî | Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | Matthew 12:39 | 3 |
| ἐπιζητοῦσιν epizētoûsin | Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Plural | Matthew 6:32 | 3 |
| ἐπιζητῶ epizētō̂ | Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 1st person, Singular | Philippians 4:17 | 2 |
| ἐπεζήτησεν epezḗtēsen | Verb, Aorist, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | Acts 13:7 | 1 |
| ἐπεζήτουν epezḗtoun | Verb, Imperfect, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Plural | Luke 4:42 | 1 |
| ἐπιζητήσας epizētḗsas | Verb, Aorist, Active, Participle, Nominative, Singular, Masculine | Acts 12:19 | 1 |
| ἐπιζητεῖτε epizēteîte | Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 2nd person, Plural | Acts 19:39 | 1 |
| ἐπιζητοῦμεν epizētoûmen | Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 1st person, Plural | Hebrews 13:14 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G1934, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- επαγγελλω epangéllō G1861 to announce
- επαγω epágō G1863 to bring upon
- επαγωνιζομαι epagōnízomai G1864 to contend
- επαθροιζω epathroízō G1865 to gather together
- επαινεω epainéō G1867 to approve
- επαινος épainos G1868 approval
- επαιρω epaírō G1869 to lift up
- επαισχυνομαι epaischýnomai G1870 to be ashamed
- επαιτεω epaitéō G1871 to ask repeatedly
- επακουω epakoúō G1873 to give ear to
- επακροαομαι epakroáomai G1874 to listen to
- επαν epán G1875 after
- επαναγκες epánankes G1876 necessarily
- επαναγω epanágō G1877 to lead back
- επαναμιμνησκω epanamimnḗskō G1878 to remind
- επαναπαυομαι epanapaúomai G1879 to rest upon
- επανερχομαι epanérchomai G1880 to return
- επανισταμαι epanístamai G1881 to raise up against
- επανορθωσις epanórthōsis G1882 correction
- επανω epánō G1883 above
- επαρκεω eparkéō G1884 to avail
- επαρχια eparchía G1885 office of governor
- επαυλις épaulis G1886 farm
- επαυριον epaúrion G1887 the next day
+110 more words share this root (not shown).
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 137 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word επιζητεω appears 13 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 13 verses in 8 books.
- 13
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 13
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 8 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 8 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Judges 6:29 ἐπιζητέω
- 1 Samuel 20:1 ἐπιζητέω
- 2 Samuel 3:8 ἐπιζητέω
- 2 Kings 1:2 ἐπιζητέω
- 2 Chronicles 18:6 ἐπιζητέω
- Esther 8:7 ἐπιζητέω
- Isaiah 62:12 ἐπιζητέω
- Hosea 3:5 ἐπιζητέω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G1934) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Judges 6:29 ἐπιζητέω They said one to another, Who has done this thing? When they inquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.
- 1 Samuel 20:1 ἐπιζητέω David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my iniquity?" and "What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?"
- 2 Samuel 3:8 ἐπιζητέω Then was Abner very angry for the words of Ish-bosheth, and said, Am I a dog's head that belongs to Judah? This day do I show kindness to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not delivered you into the hand of David; and yet you charge me this day with a fault concerning this woman.
- 2 Kings 1:2 ἐπιζητέω Ahaziah fell down through the lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said to them, Go, inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover of this sickness.
- 2 Kings 1:3 ἐπιζητέω But the angel of Yahweh said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and tell them, Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you go to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?
- 2 Kings 3:11 ἐπιζητέω But Jehoshaphat said, Isn't there here a prophet of Yahweh, that we may inquire of Yahweh by him? One of the king of Israel's servants answered, Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.
- 2 Kings 8:8 ἐπιζητέω The king said to Hazael, Take a present in your hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh by him, saying, Shall I recover of this sickness?
- 2 Kings 22:18 ἐπιζητέω But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Yahweh, thus shall you tell him, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: As touching the words which you have heard,
- 2 Chronicles 18:6 ἐπιζητέω But Jehoshaphat said, Isn't there here a prophet of Yahweh besides, that we may inquire of him?
- Esther 8:7 ἐπιζητέω Then the king Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen and to Mordecai the Jew, See, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and him they have hanged on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews.
- Isaiah 62:12 ἐπιζητέω They shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of Yahweh: and you shall be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.
- Hosea 3:5 ἐπιζητέω Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days.
- Hosea 5:15 ἐπιζητέω I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, And seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly."
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G1934) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
