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Greek verb · G1398

δουλεύω

douleuodool-yoo'-o

be a slave

25 uses in the Greek text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key

Concordance spelling: douleúō

Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's G1398is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.

  • 12 of 27
    New Testament books
  • 13
    spellings

The definition in full

Strong's key (1890) · G1398

to be a slave to (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntary)

The King James renders it: be in bondage, (do) serve(-ice).

James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.

Summary

douleuo is rendered "be a slave". It stands 25 times in the Greek text, across twelve books.

  • Seven of the uses stand in Romans, more than in any other book.
  • Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Matthew 6:24No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
  • The Greek text spells it thirteen different ways.

The first use

No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Matthew 6:24δουλεύειν

The first use, in the order of the New Testament's books.

Where the word stands

Seven of the word's twenty-five uses are in Romans.

The other 15 New Testament books never use the word.

What the word means

Each meaning, and the words it is translated by

How the Greek text is glossed, word by word

  • to serve6
  • serving4
  • serve2
  • being enslaved1
  • do serve1
  • have we been under bondage1
  • he has served1
  • I serve1
  • rendering service1
  • she is in slavery1
  • they should serve1
  • they will be in bondage1

and 4 more, 25 uses in all

The words built on the same word-part

Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.

δοῦλοςdoulosslaveUses129
δουλόωdoulooto enslaveUses8
δουλείαdouleiaslaveryUses5
δουλαγωγέωdoulagogeoto enslaveUses1
δούληdoulefemale slaveUsesnot recorded
δοῦλονdoulonslaveUsesnot recorded

All 25, in canonical order

Every use, in order

Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.

13 spellings and their grammar

STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.

How it is spelled

  • δουλεύειν8
  • δουλεύοντες3
  • δουλεύετε2
  • δουλεύω2
  • δουλεύων2
  • δεδουλεύκαμεν1
  • δουλεύει1
  • δουλευέτωσαν1
  • δουλεύουσιν1
  • δουλεύσει1
  • δουλεύσουσιν1
  • ἐδουλεύσατε1

and 1 more spellings in the ledger below.

The grammar of each form

  • verb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)8V-PAN
  • verb · present active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine plural3V-PAP-NPM
  • verb · present active, indicative · 1st person singular2V-PAI-1S
  • verb · present active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine singular2V-PAP-NSM
  • verb · aorist active, indicative · 2nd person plural1V-AAI-2P
  • verb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person singular1V-AAI-3S
  • verb · future active, indicative · 3rd person plural1V-FAI-3P
  • verb · future active, indicative · 3rd person singular1V-FAI-3S
  • verb · present active, indicative · 2nd person plural1V-PAI-2P
  • verb · present active, indicative · 3rd person plural1V-PAI-3P
  • verb · present active, indicative · 3rd person singular1V-PAI-3S
  • verb · present active, command · 2nd person plural1V-PAM-2P

Matthew

two uses
  • No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

    Matthew 6:24

    • δουλεύεινdouleueinverb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to serve
    • δουλεύεινdouleueinverb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to serve

Luke

three uses
  • But he answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have served you and never disobeyed a commandment of yours. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

    Luke 15:29

    • δουλεύωdouleuoverb · present active, indicative · 1st person singulartagged: I serve
  • No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

    Luke 16:13

    • δουλεύεινdouleueinverb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to serve
    • δουλεύεινdouleueinverb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to serve

John

one use
  • “We are Abraham’s descendants,” they answered. “We have never been slaves to anyone. How can You say we will be set free?”

    John 8:33

    • δεδουλεύκαμενdedouleukamenverb · perfect active, indicative · 1st person pluraltagged: have we been under bondage

Acts

two uses
  • ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’

    Acts 7:7

    • δουλεύσουσινdouleusousinverb · future active, indicative · 3rd person pluraltagged: they will be in bondage
  • I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, especially in the trials that came upon me through the plots of the Jews.

    Acts 20:19

    • δουλεύωνdouleuonverb · present active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine singulartagged: serving

Romans

seven uses
  • We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.

    Romans 6:6

    • δουλεύεινdouleueinverb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: being enslaved
  • But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

    Romans 7:6

    • δουλεύεινdouleueinverb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to serve
  • Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

    Romans 7:25

    • δουλεύωdouleuoverb · present active, indicative · 1st person singulartagged: serve
  • not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

    Romans 9:12

    • δουλεύσειdouleuseiverb · future active, indicative · 3rd person singulartagged: will serve
  • Do not let your zeal subside; keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

    Romans 12:11

    • δουλεύοντεςdouleuontesverb · present active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine pluraltagged: serving
  • For whoever serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

    Romans 14:18

    • δουλεύωνdouleuonverb · present active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine singulartagged: serving
  • For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

    Romans 16:18

    • δουλεύουσινdouleuousinverb · present active, indicative · 3rd person pluraltagged: serve

Galatians

four uses
  • Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

    Galatians 4:8

    • ἐδουλεύσατεedouleusateverb · aorist active, indicative · 2nd person pluraltagged: you were enslaved
  • But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

    Galatians 4:9

    • δουλεύεινdouleueinverb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to be enslaved
  • Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present-day Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

    Galatians 4:25

    • δουλεύειdouleueiverb · present active, indicative · 3rd person singulartagged: she is in slavery
  • For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love.

    Galatians 5:13

    • δουλεύετεdouleueteverb · present active, command · 2nd person pluraltagged: do serve

Ephesians

one use
  • Serve with good will, as to the Lord and not to men,

    Ephesians 6:7

    • δουλεύοντεςdouleuontesverb · present active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine pluraltagged: rendering service

Philippians

one use
  • But you know Timothy’s proven worth, that as a child with his father he has served with me to advance the gospel.

    Philippians 2:22

    • ἐδούλευσενedouleusenverb · aorist active, indicative · 3rd person singulartagged: he has served

Colossians

one use
  • because you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

    Colossians 3:24

    • δουλεύετεdouleueteverb · present active, indicative · 2nd person pluraltagged: you serve

1 Thessalonians

one use
  • For they themselves report what kind of welcome you gave us, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

    1 Thessalonians 1:9

    • δουλεύεινdouleueinverb · present active, infinitive (“to…”)tagged: to serve

1 Timothy

one use
  • Those who have believing masters should not show disrespect because they are brothers, but should serve them all the more, since those receiving their good service are beloved believers. Teach and encourage these principles.

    1 Timothy 6:2

    • δουλευέτωσανdouleuetosanverb · present active, command · 3rd person pluraltagged: they should serve

Titus

one use
  • For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

    Titus 3:3

    • δουλεύοντεςdouleuontesverb · present active, participle · nominative (subject) · masculine pluraltagged: serving

Where it leads

How the numbers are counted

Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.

Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.

The family is read from the lexicon by the stem the two words share, with the accents off, and a person or a place named on the stem is left out.

Hebrew and Greek text, word tagging and grammar: STEP Bible (www.STEPBible.org), Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0. Their grammar codes are written out in English here and shown as tagged beside each one.

Meaning and senses: STEP Bible TBESG (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0), the Brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922).

Dictionary key: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890, public domain). English verse text: Berean Standard Bible (public domain, 2023).

Revised 2026-09-05. Every cited work, the sources registry →