ἵστημι
to stand
‘to stand’ is one of 5 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Perfect-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
- Perfect
- A completed past action with continuing present results.
- Aorist
- Action viewed as a simple whole, without regard to duration — often past (perfective aspect).
- Pluperfect
- A past action completed before another past point (“had written”).
- Future
- Action expected in future time.
- Present
- Ongoing or general action in present time (imperfective aspect).
Voice
- Active
- The subject performs the action.
- Passive
- The subject receives the action.
- Middle deponent
- Middle in form but active in meaning.
Mood
- Participle
- A verbal adjective (“writing,” “having written”).
- Indicative
- States a fact or asks a factual question (the mood of reality).
- Infinitive
- A verbal noun (“to write”), unmarked for person or number.
- Imperative
- Expresses a command or request.
- Subjunctive
- Expresses probability, purpose, or possibility (the mood of contingency).
Case
- Nominative
- The case of the subject (and the predicate nominative).
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
- Genitive
- The case of source, possession, or “of” — answers “whose / from what.”
Person
- 3rd person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Neuter
- Grammatically neuter.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one.
Every verse where G2476 appears in the Book of Matthew — 20 distinct verses. 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
- Matthew 2:9 ἐστάθη aor pass ind 3sg They, having heard the king, went their way; and behold, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, until it came and stood over where the young child was.
- Matthew 4:5 ἔστησεν aor act ind 3sg Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple,
- Matthew 6:5 ἑστῶτες perf act ptcp nom pl masc "When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Most assuredly, I tell you, they have received their reward.
- Matthew 12:25 σταθήσεται fut pass ind 3sg Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
- Matthew 12:26 σταθήσεται fut pass ind 3sg If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
- Matthew 12:46 εἱστήκεισαν plup act ind 3pl While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him.
- Matthew 12:47 ἑστήκασιν perf act ind 3pl One said to him, "Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you."
- Matthew 13:2 εἱστήκει plup act ind 3sg Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat, and sat, and all the multitude stood on the beach.
- Matthew 16:28 ἑστώτων perf act ptcp gen pl masc Most assuredly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste of death, until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom."
- Matthew 18:2 ἔστησεν aor act ind 3sg Jesus called a little child to himself, and set him in the midst of them,
- Matthew 18:16 σταθῇ aor pass subj 3sg But if he doesn't listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
- Matthew 20:3 ἑστῶτας perf act ptcp acc pl masc He went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.
- Matthew 20:6 ἑστῶτας ἑστήκατε perf act ptcp acc pl masc perf act ind 2pl About the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle. He said to them, 'Why do you stand here all day idle?'
- Matthew 20:32 στὰς aor act ptcp nom sg masc Jesus stood still, and called them, and asked, "What do you want me to do for you?"
- Matthew 24:15 ἑστὸς perf act ptcp acc sg neut "When, therefore, you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
- Matthew 25:33 στήσει fut act ind 3sg He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
- Matthew 26:15 ἔστησαν aor act ind 3pl and said, "What are you willing to give me, that I should deliver him to you?" They weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.
- Matthew 26:73 ἑστῶτες perf act ptcp nom pl masc After a little while those who stood by came and said to Peter, "Surely you are also one of them, for your speech makes you known."
- Matthew 27:11 ἐστάθη aor pass ind 3sg Now Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said to him, "So you say."
- Matthew 27:47 ἑστηκότων perf act ptcp gen pl masc Some of them who stood there, when they heard it, said, "This man is calling Elijah."
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 ιστημι centers on the idea of “to stand.” Older and newer Bibles part ways — “stood” in the King James Version, “standing” (Berean Standard Bible) in modern versions. See the renderings breakdown. It turns up in 148 verses across 16 books, a common footprint. Its earliest occurrence is Matthew 2:9. Thayer's distinguishes 5 senses for it. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G2476 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 →
- 148
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 148 distinct verses.
- 16 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 16 of 27 New Testament books.
- #107
- by frequency
- Top 250 most frequent Greek words (rank 107 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 148 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 148 distinct verses.
- Gospels 72 verses · 49%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 60 verses · 41%
- Johannine 38 verses · 26%
- Revelation 20 verses · 14%
- Pauline corpus 15 verses · 10%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 4 verses · 3%
- Hebrews 2 verses · 1%
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: Stood 43×, Stand 23×, Standing 22×
- American Standard Version: Standing 30×, Stood 27×, Stand 21×
- Berean Standard Bible: Standing 31×, Stood 26×, Stand 15×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Standing 38×, Stand 20×, Stood 16×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G2476 across 156 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 33 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 7 further occurrences.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G2476 across 166 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 49 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 G2476 across 152 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 44 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 G2476 across 169 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 47 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 5 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 cause or make to stand, to place, put, set
- to uphold or sustain the authority or force of anything
- to stand by or near
- of the foundation of a building
- to stand
Word origin
Origin: a prolonged form of a primary stao stah'-o (of the same meaning, and used for it in certain tenses)
A prolonged form of a primary word στάω staō (of the same meaning and used for it in certain tenses); to stand (transitively or intransitively) used in various applications (literally or figuratively): - abide appoint bring continue covenant establish hold up lay present set (up) stanch stand (by forth still up). Compare G5087 .
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 50 distinct written forms G2476 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that tense’s occurrences in the concordance.
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G2476, 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.
Derived from this word
- σθενοω sthenóō G4599 to strengthen
- σταδιον stádion G4712 furlong
- σταμνος stámnos G4713 jar
- στασις stásis G4714 insurrection
- σταυρος staurós G4716 cross
- σταχυς stáchys G4719 ear of grain
- στελλω stéllō G4724 to set
- στενος stenós G4728 narrow
- στερεος stereós G4731 strong
- στηθος stēthos G4738 breast
- στηκω stḗkō G4739 to stand firm
- στηριζω stērízō G4741 to establish
- στοα stoá G4745 portico
- στυλος stŷlos G4769 pillar
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 15 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word ιστημι appears 592 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 555 verses in 33 books.
- 592
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 555
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 33 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 33 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 6:18 ἵστημι
- Exodus 3:5 ἵστημι
- Leviticus 9:5 ἵστημι
- Numbers 3:6 ἵστημι
- Deuteronomy 4:10 ἵστημι
- Joshua 2:11 ἵστημι
- Judges 4:20 ἵστημι
- Ruth 2:7 ἵστημι
- 1 Samuel 1:23 ἵστημι
- 2 Samuel 1:9 ἵστημι
- 1 Kings 1:28 ἵστημι
- 2 Kings 2:7 ἵστημι
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G2476) appears in the Greek Septuagint — showing the first 50 of 555. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 6:18 ἵστημι But I will establish my covenant with you. You shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
- Genesis 9:11 ἵστημι I will establish my covenant with you; neither will all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of the flood; neither will there any more be a flood to destroy the earth."
- Genesis 12:8 ἵστημι He left from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh, and called on the name of Yahweh.
- Genesis 17:7 ἵστημι I will establish my covenant between me and you and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your seed after you.
- Genesis 17:19 ἵστημι God said, "No, but Sarah, your wife, will bear you a son. You shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.
- Genesis 17:21 ἵστημι But my covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time in the next year."
- Genesis 18:2 ἵστημι He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,
- Genesis 18:22 ἵστημι The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before Yahweh.
- Genesis 19:17 ἵστημι It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Don't look behind you, neither stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed!"
- Genesis 19:27 ἵστημι Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before Yahweh.
- Genesis 21:28 ἵστημι Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
- Genesis 21:29 ἵστημι Abimelech said to Abraham, "What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?"
- Genesis 23:17 ἵστημι So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border of it round about, were made sure
- Genesis 24:13 ἵστημι Behold, I am standing by the spring of water. The daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.
- Genesis 24:30 ἵστημι It happened, when he saw the ring, and the bracelets on his sister's hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, "This is what the man said to me," that he came to the man. Behold, he was standing by the camels at the spring.
- Genesis 24:31 ἵστημι He said, "Come in, you blessed of Yahweh. Why do you stand outside? For I have prepared the house, and room for the camels."
- Genesis 26:3 ἵστημι Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
- Genesis 28:18 ἵστημι Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.
- Genesis 28:22 ἵστημι then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God's house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give the tenth to you."
- Genesis 29:35 ἵστημι She conceived again, and bare a son. She said, "This time will I praise Yahweh." Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.
- Genesis 30:9 ἵστημι When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
- Genesis 30:40 ἵστημι Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn't put them into Laban's flock.
- Genesis 31:25 ἵστημι Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.
- Genesis 31:45 ἵστημι Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar.
- Genesis 31:48 ἵστημι Laban said, "This heap is witness between me and you this day." Therefore it was named Galeed
- Genesis 33:19 ἵστημι He bought the parcel of ground, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred pieces of money.
- Genesis 33:20 ἵστημι He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.
- Genesis 35:14 ἵστημι Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink-offering on it, and poured oil on it.
- Genesis 35:20 ἵστημι Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.
- Genesis 41:1 ἵστημι It happened at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.
- Genesis 41:17 ἵστημι Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, "In my dream, behold, I stood on the brink of the river:
- Genesis 41:46 ἵστημι Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
- Genesis 43:9 ἵστημι I will be collateral for him. From my hand will you require him. If I don't bring him to you, and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever,
- Genesis 43:15 ἵστημι The men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin; and rose up, went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.
- Genesis 44:32 ἵστημι For your servant became collateral for the boy to my father, saying, 'If I don't bring him to you, then I will bear the blame to my father forever.'
- Genesis 47:2 ἵστημι From among his brothers he took five men, and presented them to Pharaoh.
- Genesis 47:7 ἵστημι Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
- Exodus 3:5 ἵστημι He said, "Don't come close. Take off your sandals from off your feet, for the place you are standing on is holy ground."
- Exodus 4:25 ἵστημι Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me."
- Exodus 4:26 ἵστημι So he let him alone. Then she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.
- Exodus 6:4 ἵστημι I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their travels, in which they lived as aliens.
- Exodus 7:15 ἵστημι Go to Pharaoh in the morning. Behold, he goes out to the water; and you shall stand by the river's bank to meet him; and the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand.
- Exodus 8:16 ἵστημι Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.'"
- Exodus 9:11 ἵστημι The magicians couldn't stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boils were on the magicians, and on all the Egyptians.
- Exodus 9:13 ἵστημι Yahweh said to Moses, "Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and tell him, 'This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, that they may serve me.
- Exodus 14:13 ἵστημι Moses said to the people, "Don't be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh, which he will work for you today: for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never see them again.
- Exodus 14:19 ἵστημι The angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them, and stood behind them.
- Exodus 14:20 ἵστημι It came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud and the darkness, yet gave it light by night: and the one didn't come near the other all the night.
- Exodus 17:6 ἵστημι Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink." Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
- Exodus 17:9 ἵστημι Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with God's rod in my hand."
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G2476) 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.
