Bible Dictionary
PREFER
To prefer may mean to choose one person or thing before another, distinguish it, remove it, or regard it as one’s own, depending on the biblical context.
Definition
To prefer may mean to choose one thing or person before another, but in older biblical English it can also mean to remove, distinguish, become, or regard something as one’s own. Its meaning depends on the passage.
Biblical Usage
The word occurs in contexts involving choosing, distinction, removal, and personal possession. In some passages later translations replace “preferred” with “removed,” “distinguished,” “become,” or “own.”
Historical Background
Translation revisions clarify several older uses of “prefer,” since its historical English range was broader than the modern sense of choosing one thing over another.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>pre-fur': Does not always have the general meaning "to choose before another." In Ps 137:6, it does have this sense and the two versions agree; in Es 2:9, the Revised Version (British and American) has "removed" where the King James Version has "preferred"; in Da 6:3, "distinguished" takes its place; in Joh 1:15,30, "become" is substituted for "preferred"; in 1:27, "preferred" drops out entirely; in Ro 12:10, the versions agree.</p>