Word study
Desolate
6 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “desolate”. 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 “desolate” 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)
- שְׁמָמָה shemâmâha devastation, wastetranslated this way 26 times of its 56 uses · Strong’s H8077Noun · Translated: desolate 26, desolation 19, wasteland 4Full study and all 52 verses →
Exodus 23:29 I will not drive them out before you in a single year; otherwise the land would become desolate and wild animals would multiply against you.
Leviticus 26:33 But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.
- שָׁמֵם shâmêmbe desoleted, appalledtranslated this way 23 times of its 85 uses · Strong’s H8074Verb · Translated: appalled 17, desolate 10, deserted 5, desolation 4Full study and all 81 verses →
Leviticus 26:22 I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.
Isaiah 49:8 This is what the LORD says: “In the time of favor I will answer You, and in the day of salvation I will help You; I will keep You and appoint You to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land, to apportion its desolate inheritances,
- שָׁמֵם shâmêmdevastatedtranslated this way 5 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H8076Verb · Translated: desolate 5, without help 1Full study and all 6 verses →
2 Samuel 13:20 Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has your brother Amnon been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister. He is your brother. Do not take this thing to heart.” So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in the house of her brother Absalom.
Jeremiah 12:11 They have made it a desolation; desolate before Me, it mourns. All the land is laid waste, but no man takes it to heart.
- חׇרְבָּה chorbâhwaste, desolation, ruintranslated this way 4 times of its 42 uses · Strong’s H2723Noun · Translated: ruins 19, ruin 5, wasteland 3, desolation 3Full study and all 42 verses →
Jeremiah 25:11 And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
Ezekiel 38:8 After a long time you will be summoned. In the latter years you will enter a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and all now dwell securely.
- שַׁמָּה shammâhwaste, appalmenttranslated this way 2 times of its 39 uses · Strong’s H8047Noun · Translated: desolation 12, horror 7, object of horror 6, laid waste 3Full study and all 39 verses →
Isaiah 5:9 I heard the LORD of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate, great mansions left unoccupied.
Jeremiah 48:9 Put salt on Moab, for she will be laid waste; her cities will become desolate, with no one to dwell in them.
- חָרַב chârabbe dry, dried uptranslated this way 2 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H2717Verb · Translated: dried 7, laid waste 6, dry 4, Kill 2Full study and all 36 verses →
Isaiah 34:10 It will not be quenched— day or night. Its smoke will ascend forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever again pass through it.
Ezekiel 26:19 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘When I make you a desolate city like other deserted cities, and when I raise up the deep against you so that the mighty waters cover you,
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἔρημος érēmosdeserted, desolate, a deserttranslated this way 5 times of its 47 uses · Strong’s G2048Adjective · Translated: wilderness 31, solitary 6, desolate 4, desert 2Full study and all 47 verses →
Matthew 14:15 When evening came, the disciples came to Him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is already late. Dismiss the crowds so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”
Mark 6:35 By now the hour was already late. So the disciples came to Jesus and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is already late.
- ἐρημία erēmíaa desert placetranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G2047Noun · Translated: desolate place 2, country 1, deserts 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Matthew 15:33 The disciples replied, “Where in this desolate place could we find enough bread to feed such a large crowd?”
Mark 8:4 His disciples replied, “Where in this desolate place could anyone find enough bread to feed all these people?”
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.