ἀργός
argós · G692 · Greek · 8 occurrences
Meanings
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idle, not working
Pertaining to not working
ExamplesMatthew 20:3 “And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace;
Matthew 20:6 “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’
James 2:20 But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless?
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lazy, good-for-nothing
Pertaining to habitually refusing to work (probably with a more unfavorable connotation than in the case of ἄτακτος)
Examples1 Timothy 5:13 At the same time they also learn to be idle, as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also they become gossips and busybodies, talking about things not proper to mention.
Titus 1:12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
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careless, without thought
Pertaining to not giving careful consideration to something
ExamplesMatthew 12:36 “But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment.
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useless
Pertaining to being useless, in the sense of accomplishing nothing
ExamplesJames 2:20 But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless?
2 Peter 1:8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they do not make you useless nor unproductive in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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careless, indifferent
Pertaining to showing indifference as to whether something is as it should be
ExamplesMatthew 12:36 “But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment.
How it’s used In 1 role
Every occurrence, grouped by the words it is grammatically related to.
the word studied the word it goes with
What is said to be itIt is the predicate
1 occurrences in 1 groups
- πίστιςfaith, trust, faithfulness 1
When two words share a role, as in “Paul and Barnabas said”, the verse appears under each, so a section’s counts can add up to more than the number of occurrences.
MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Near synonyms 3 words
- νωθρός nōthrós · G3576 · lazy, slow to understand
- Greek adjective describing sluggishness and mental/spiritual laziness (Heb 5:11, 6:12), sharing the 'lazy, inactive' semantic range with ἀργός but emphasizing dulled responsiveness.
- ἀχρεῖος achreîos · G888 · useless, not useful, worthless
- Greek adjective for uselessness and lack of merit (Luke 17:10, Matt 25:30). While ἀργός emphasizes inactivity and idleness (from α-privative + ἔργον 'work'), ἀχρεῖος focuses on lack of value or usefulness independent of activity level. The two terms overlap in the semantic domain of uselessness (65.36), but represent different perspectives: ἀργός describes the state of not working, ἀχρεῖος the quality of having no value.
- ὀκνηρός oknērós · G3636 · lazy, lacking in ambition, bothersome
- Greek adjective for laziness and slothfulness (Matt 25:26, Rom 12:11, Phil 3:1), synonymous with the 'lazy' aspect of ἀργός but emphasizing reluctance and hesitancy.
In the other Testament 3 words
- בָּטֵל bâṭêl · H988 · to cease working, to become idle, to cause (someone or some activity) to stop
- Hebrew adjective/verb describing idleness and cessation from work, a natural translation equivalent for ἀργός in contexts of inactivity and unemployment.
- עָצֵל ʻâtsêl · H6102 · lazy person, sluggard
- Hebrew adjective for laziness and sluggishness, particularly in Proverbs, directly equivalent to the 'lazy' sense of ἀργός.
- רָפָה râphâh · H7503 · to grow weak, to be discouraged
- Hebrew adjective describing slackness and idleness, used for those who are inactive or remiss in duty, corresponds to the 'inactive/idle' sense of ἀργός.
Semantic domains 5 entries
- Careless, without thought30.44
- In Matthew 12:36, Jesus warns, “for every careless (argón) word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment,” describing speech uttered without thought for its weight.
- Idle, not working42.46
- In Matthew 20:3, the landowner “went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle (argoús) in the marketplace,” describing laborers with no work to do.
- Useless65.36
- In James 2:20, James asks, “are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless (argḗ)?” describing a faith that produces nothing of value.
- Careless, indifferent72.21
- In 1 Timothy 5:13, Paul warns concerning younger widows, “they also learn to be idle (argaí), as they go around from house to house; and not merely idle, but also they become gossips and busybodies,” describing a habitual, careless neglect of proper conduct.
- Lazy, good-for-nothing88.248
- In Titus 1:12, Paul quotes a Cretan prophet's own assessment of his people, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy (argaí) gluttons,” describing an ingrained, disreputable laziness.
Word family 25 words
Words formed from the same root. They share a form, not always a meaning.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon ἀργόν, and in later writings from Aristotle, hist. anim. 10, 40 (vol. i., p. 627{a}, 15)…
a. free from labor, at leisure (ἀργόν εἶναι, Herodotus 5, 6): Mt 20:3, Mt 20:6 (Rec.); 1 Tim 5:13.
b. lazy, shunning the labor which one ought to perform (Homer, Iliad 9, 320 ὁ, τ' ἀεργός ἀνήρ, ὁ, τέ πολλά ἐοργως): πίστις, Jas 2:20 (L T Tr WH for R G νεκρά); γαστέρες ἀργαί i. e. idle gluttons, from Epimenides, Tit 1:12 (Nicet. ann. 7, 4, 135 d. εἰς ἀργᾷς γαστερας ὀχετηγησας); ἀργός καί ἄκαρπος εἰς τί, 2 Pet 1:8.
c. of things from which no profit is derived, although they can and ought to be productive; as of fields, trees, gold and silver, (cf. Grimm on Wis. 14:5; (Liddell and Scott, under the word I. 2)); unprofitable, ῤῆμα ἀργόν, by litotes equivalent to pernicious (see ἄκαρπος): Mt 12:36.
Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (1889), public domain
Topical studies with this word 5 entries
Meanings adapted from the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0 and the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew (from the Semantic Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew), © United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0; MACULA Greek Linguistic Datasets, available at https://github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-greek/, licensed CC BY 4.0; MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets © 2022-2024 by Biblica, Inc., CC BY 4.0. Westminster Leningrad Codex (tanach.us). OpenScriptures Hebrew Bible morphology (hb.openscriptures.org), CC BY 4.0.
Sources
eRhema lexical overview, based on the UBS Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew and the UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (© United Bible Societies, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Macula Hebrew and Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0); released under CC BY-SA 4.0
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