πολεμέω
to war
‘to war’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
See every Aorist-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
- Aorist
- Action viewed as a simple whole, without regard to duration — often past (perfective aspect).
- Future
- Action expected in future time.
- Present
- Ongoing or general action in present time (imperfective aspect).
Voice
- Active
- The subject performs the action.
Mood
- Infinitive
- A verbal noun (“to write”), unmarked for person or number.
- Indicative
- States a fact or asks a factual question (the mood of reality).
Person
- 3rd person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one.
2 verses where G4170 appears in the Aorist tense in the Book of Revelation. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Revelation
- Revelation 12:7 πολεμῆσαι ἐπολέμησεν aor act inf aor act ind 3sg There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the dragon. The dragon and his angels made war.
- Revelation 13:4 πολεμῆσαι aor act inf They worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
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 πολεμεω centers on the idea of “to war.” The word gravitates to Revelation (83%), then James. It appears 6 verses across 2 books of the Greek New Testament, among its uncommon vocabulary. Debuting at James 4:2, it then recurs through the corpus. Thayer's distinguishes 2 senses for it. Dig into 6-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G4170 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 →
- 6
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 6 distinct verses.
- 2 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 2 of 27 New Testament books.
- #1,358
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Greek words (rank 1,358 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 6 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Revelation 5 verses 83%
- James 1 verse 17%
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 6 distinct verses.
- Johannine 5 verses · 83%
- Revelation 5 verses · 83%
- General (Catholic) Epistles 1 verse · 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: Fought 2×, Make war 2×
- American Standard Version: War 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Fought 2×, Wage war 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Fought 2×, War 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G4170 across 7 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 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 G4170 across 7 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 5 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 G4170 across 7 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 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 G4170 across 7 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 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 2 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 war, carry on war
- to fight
Word origin
Derived from πολεμος (pólemos) (G4171) — war.
From G4171 ; to be (engaged) in warfare that is to battle (literally or figuratively): - fight (make) war.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 6 distinct written forms G4170 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that tense’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| πολεμῆσαι polemē̂sai | Verb, Aorist, Active, Infinitive | Revelation 12:7 | 2 |
| πολεμήσουσιν polemḗsousin | Verb, Future, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Plural | Revelation 17:14 | 1 |
| πολεμήσω polemḗsō | Verb, Future, Active, Indicative, 1st person, Singular | Revelation 2:16 | 1 |
| πολεμεῖ polemeî | Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | Revelation 19:11 | 1 |
| πολεμεῖτε polemeîte | Verb, Present, Active, Indicative, 2nd person, Plural | James 4:2 | 1 |
| ἐπολέμησεν epolémēsen | Verb, Aorist, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | Revelation 12:7 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G4170, 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
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word πολεμεω appears 132 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 127 verses in 19 books.
- 132
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 127
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 19 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 19 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Exodus 14:14 πολεμέω
- Numbers 21:1 πολεμέω
- Deuteronomy 1:41 πολεμέω
- Joshua 11:5 πολεμέω
- Judges 1:1 πολεμέω
- 1 Samuel 4:9 πολεμέω
- 2 Samuel 2:28 πολεμέω
- 1 Kings 12:21 πολεμέω
- 2 Kings 3:21 πολεμέω
- 1 Chronicles 7:11 πολεμέω
- 2 Chronicles 11:1 πολεμέω
- Ezra 14:14 πολεμέω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G4170) appears in the Greek Septuagint — showing the first 50 of 127. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Exodus 14:14 πολεμέω Yahweh will fight for you, and you shall be still."
- Exodus 14:25 πολεμέω He took off their chariot wheels, and they drove them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, "Let's flee from the face of Israel, for Yahweh fights for them against the Egyptians!"
- Exodus 17:8 πολεμέω Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
- Exodus 17:16 πολεμέω He said, "Yah has sworn: 'Yahweh will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.'"
- Numbers 21:1 πολεμέω The Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the South, heard tell that Israel came by the way of Atharim; and he fought against Israel, and took some of them captive.
- Numbers 21:26 πολεμέω For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even to the Arnon.
- Deuteronomy 1:41 πολεμέω Then you answered and said to me, We have sinned against Yahweh, we will go up and fight, according to all that Yahweh our God commanded us. You girded on every man his weapons of war, and were forward to go up into the hill-country.
- Deuteronomy 1:42 πολεμέω Yahweh said to me, Tell them, Don't go up, neither fight; for I am not among you; lest you be struck before your enemies.
- Deuteronomy 3:22 πολεμέω You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you.
- Joshua 11:5 πολεμέω All these kings met together; and they came and encamped together at the waters of Merom, to fight with Israel.
- Joshua 11:23 πολεμέω So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that Yahweh spoke to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. The land had rest from war.
- Joshua 19:48 πολεμέω This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families, these cities with their villages.
- Joshua 24:11 πολεμέω You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; and I delivered them into your hand.
- Judges 1:1 πολεμέω It happened after the death of Joshua, the children of Israel asked of Yahweh, saying, Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?
- Judges 1:8 πολεμέω The children of Judah fought against Jerusalem, and took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and set the city on fire.
- Judges 1:9 πολεμέω Afterward the children of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill-country, and in the South, and in the lowland.
- Judges 5:8 πολεμέω They chose new gods; Then was war in the gates: Was there a shield or spear seen Among forty thousand in Israel?
- Judges 5:19 πολεμέω The kings came and fought; Then fought the kings of Canaan. In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo: They took no gain of money.
- Judges 11:25 πολεμέω Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them?
- 1 Samuel 4:9 πολεμέω Be strong, and behave yourselves like men, O you Philistines, that you not be servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.
- 1 Samuel 4:10 πολεμέω The Philistines fought, and Israel was struck, and they fled every man to his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.
- 1 Samuel 8:20 πολεμέω that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
- 1 Samuel 12:9 πολεμέω But they forgot Yahweh their God; and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them.
- 1 Samuel 14:47 πολεμέω Now when Saul had taken the kingdom over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon, and against Edom, and against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines: and wherever he turned himself, he put [them] to the worse.
- 1 Samuel 15:18 πολεμέω and Yahweh sent you on a journey, and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.'
- 1 Samuel 17:9 πολεμέω If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall you be our servants, and serve us.
- 1 Samuel 17:12 πολεμέω Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken [in years] among men.
- 1 Samuel 17:13 πολεμέω The three eldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.
- 1 Samuel 19:8 πολεμέω There was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.
- 1 Samuel 23:1 πολεμέω They told David, saying, Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and are robbing the threshing floors.
- 1 Samuel 23:5 πολεμέω David and his men went to Keilah, and fought with the Philistines, and brought away their cattle, and killed them with a great slaughter. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
- 1 Samuel 25:28 πολεμέω Please forgive the trespass of your handmaid: for Yahweh will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord fights the battles of Yahweh; and evil shall not be found in you all your days.
- 1 Samuel 28:1 πολεμέω It happened in those days, that the Philistines gathered their hosts together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, Know you assuredly, that you shall go out with me in the host, you and your men.
- 1 Samuel 28:15 πολεμέω Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disquieted me, to bring me up? Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answers me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall do.
- 1 Samuel 29:8 πολεμέω David said to Achish, But what have I done? and what have you found in your servant so long as I have been before you to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?
- 1 Samuel 29:11 πολεμέω So David rose up early, he and his men, to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. The Philistines went up to Jezreel.
- 1 Samuel 31:1 πολεμέω Now the Philistines fought against Israel: and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.
- 2 Samuel 2:28 πολεμέω So Joab blew the trumpet; and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more, neither fought they any more.
- 2 Samuel 8:10 πολεμέω then Toi sent Joram his son to king David, to Greet him, and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and struck him: for Hadadezer had wars with Toi. [Joram] brought with him vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of brass:
- 2 Samuel 10:17 πολεμέω It was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over the Jordan, and came to Helam. The Syrians set themselves in array against David, and fought with him.
- 2 Samuel 11:17 πολεμέω The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab: and there fell some of the people, even of the servants of David; and Uriah the Hittite died also.
- 2 Samuel 11:20 πολεμέω it shall be that, if the king's wrath arise, and he tells you, 'Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Didn't you know that they would shoot from the wall?
- 2 Samuel 11:22 πολεμέω So the messenger went, and came and shown David all that Joab had sent him for.
- 2 Samuel 12:26 πολεμέω Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city.
- 2 Samuel 12:27 πολεμέω Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah; yes, I have taken the city of waters.
- 2 Samuel 12:29 πολεμέω David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it.
- 2 Samuel 21:15 πολεμέω The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint;
- 1 Kings 12:21 πολεμέω When Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men, who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
- 1 Kings 12:24 πολεμέω Thus says Yahweh, You shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is of me. So they listened to the word of Yahweh, and returned and went their way, according to the word of Yahweh.
- 1 Kings 16:28 πολεμέω So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria; and Ahab his son reigned in his place.
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G4170) 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.
