Word study
Depraved
2 Hebrew and 4 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “depraved”. 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 “depraved” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- זִמָּה zimmâhplan, device, wickednesstranslated this way 2 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s H2154Noun · Translated: indecency 7, lewd 3, depraved 2, depravity 2Full study and all 27 verses →
Leviticus 18:17 You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved.
Leviticus 20:14 If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that there will be no depravity among you.
- שָׁחַת shâchathgo to ruin (?)translated this way 2 times of its 145 uses · Strong’s H7843Verb · Translated: destroy 58, destroyed 13, corrupt 7, corrupted 5Full study and all 135 verses →
Ezekiel 16:47 And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were.
Ezekiel 23:11 Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀδόκιμος adókimosfailing to pass the testtranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s G96Adjective · Translated: disqualified 2Full study and all 8 verses →
Romans 1:28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
- διαφθείρω diaphtheírōI destroy, waste, corrupttranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s G1311Verb · Translated: destroy 2, destroys 1, wasting away 1, depraved 1Full study and all 5 verses →
1 Timothy 6:5 and constant friction between men of depraved mind who are devoid of the truth. These men regard godliness as a means of gain.
- καταφθείρω kataphtheírōI destroy, corrupttranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G2704Verb · Translated: depraved 1Full study and its 1 verse →
2 Timothy 3:8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and disqualified from the faith.
- ἀσέλγεια asélgeiawantonness, lewdnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 10 uses · Strong’s G766Noun · Translated: debauchery 5, sensuality 1, depravity 1, depraved 1Full study and all 10 verses →
2 Peter 2:7 and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless
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.