Word study

Confound

6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: confounded, confound, confounds. 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 “confound” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • חָפֵר châphêrbe abashed, ashamedtranslated this way 6 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H2659Verb  ·  Translated: confounded 6, disgrace 3, ashamed 2, humiliated 2

    Psalm 35:4 May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plan to harm me be driven back and confounded.

    Isaiah 24:23 The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders with great glory.

    Full study and all 17 verses →
  • בּוּשׁ bûshbe ashamedtranslated this way 1 time of its 125 uses · Strong’s H954Verb  ·  Translated: ashamed 40, put to shame 36, shame 10, disgraced 8

    Job 6:20 They are confounded because they had hoped; their arrival brings disappointment.

    Full study and all 112 verses →
  • שָׁמֵם shâmêmbe desoleted, appalledtranslated this way 1 time of its 85 uses · Strong’s H8074Verb  ·  Translated: appalled 17, desolate 10, deserted 5, desolation 4

    Daniel 8:27 I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was confounded by the vision; it was beyond understanding.

    Full study and all 81 verses →
  • פָּלַג pâlagsplit, dividetranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H6385Verb  ·  Translated: divided 2, cuts 1, confound 1

    Psalm 55:9 O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • פָּלָא pâlâbe surpassing, extraordinarytranslated this way 1 time of its 70 uses · Strong’s H6381Verb  ·  Translated: wonders 31, difficult 5, wonderful 3, fulfill 2

    Isaiah 29:14 Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”

    Full study and all 68 verses →
  • שׁוּב shûbturn back, returntranslated this way 1 time of its 1,007 uses · Strong’s H7725Verb  ·  Translated: return 218, returned 105, restore 62, turn 56Full study and all 920 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • συγχέω synchéōI bewilder, stir uptranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s G4797Verb  ·  Translated: turmoil 2, bewilderment 1, confounded 1, stirred 1

    Acts 9:22 But Saul was empowered all the more, and he confounded the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

    Full study and all 5 verses →
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.