Word study
Contempt
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “contempt”. 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 “contempt” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- בּוּז bûzcontempttranslated this way 8 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H937Noun · Translated: contempt 7, laughingstock 1, scorns 1, much contempt 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Job 12:21 He pours out contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty.
Psalm 31:18 May lying lips be silenced — lips that speak with arrogance against the righteous, full of pride and contempt.
- נָאַץ nâatscontemn, spurntranslated this way 4 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5006Verb · Translated: despised 6, despise 3Full study and all 24 verses →
Numbers 14:11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people treat Me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in Me, despite all the signs I have performed among them?
1 Samuel 2:17 Thus the sin of these young men was severe in the sight of the LORD, for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.
- חֶרְפָּה cherpâhreproachtranslated this way 3 times of its 72 uses · Strong’s H2781Noun · Translated: reproach 30, disgrace 16, shame 6, scorn 6Full study and all 72 verses →
Job 16:10 They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.
Ezekiel 21:28 Now prophesy, son of man, and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says concerning the Ammonites and their contempt: ‘A sword! A sword is drawn for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning—
- שְׁרֵקָה sherêqâhhissingtranslated this way 3 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s H8322Noun · Translated: scorn 2, object of scorn 2, contempt 2, and an 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
Micah 6:16 You have kept the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their counsel. Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants an object of contempt; you will bear the scorn of the nations.”
- קָלַל qâlalbe slight, swift, triflingtranslated this way 2 times of its 82 uses · Strong’s H7043Verb · Translated: curse 15, cursed 8, curses 5, swifter 5Full study and all 79 verses →
Genesis 16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be upon you! I delivered my servant into your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me.”
Ezekiel 22:7 Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.
- שְׁאָט sheâṭdespite, contempttranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H7589Noun · Translated: contempt 1, malice 1, utter contempt 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Ezekiel 25:6 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you clapped your hands and stomped your feet and rejoiced over the land of Israel with a heart full of contempt,
Ezekiel 36:5 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Surely in My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder.
- שָׁאט shâṭone contemningtranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H7590Verb · Translated: treat them with contempt 2, despise 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Ezekiel 28:24 For the people of Israel will no longer face a pricking brier or a painful thorn from all around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD.’
Ezekiel 28:26 And there they will dwell securely, build houses, and plant vineyards. They will dwell securely when I execute judgments against all those around them who treat them with contempt. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.’”
How to study a word well
- 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.
- 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.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- 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.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- 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.