Word study

Alas

6 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “alas”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “alas” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • הוֹי hôyAh, Alas, Hatranslated this way 8 times of its 51 uses · Strong’s H1945Interjection  ·  Translated: Woe 36, Alas 8, Get 3, Ah 1

    Isaiah 1:4 Alas, O sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who act corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD; they have despised the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him.

    Jeremiah 22:18 Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’

    Full study and all 47 verses →
  • אֲהָהּ ăhâhhalas!translated this way 2 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H162Interjection  ·  Translated: oh 5, Ah 5, Alas 2, o 1

    2 Kings 3:10 “Alas,” said the king of Israel, “for the LORD has summoned these three kings to deliver them into the hand of Moab!”

    Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

    Full study and all 15 verses →
  • הוֹ hôAh!translated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H1930Interjection  ·  Translated: Alas 2

    Amos 5:16 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

    Full study and its 1 verse →
  • אֵיךְ êkHow?translated this way 1 time of its 84 uses · Strong’s H349Interjection  ·  Translated: how 58, what 5, so how 3, why 3

    Ecclesiastes 2:16 For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!

    Full study and all 74 verses →
  • אָח âchah! alas!translated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H253Interjection  ·  Translated: Alas 1, Yes 1

    Ezekiel 6:11 This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • הָהּ hâhhalas!translated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H1929Interjection  ·  Translated: Alas 1

    Ezekiel 30:2 “Son of man, prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Wail, ‘Alas for that day!’

    Full study and its 1 verse →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.