Word study
Destruction
13 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “destruction”. 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 “destruction” 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)
- חָרַם châramban, devote, exterminatetranslated this way 37 times of its 49 uses · Strong’s H2763Verb · Translated: devoted to destruction 12, devote to destruction 6, devote them to destruction 5, set apart for destruction 4Full study and all 47 verses →
Exodus 22:20 If anyone sacrifices to any god other than the LORD alone, he must be set apart for destruction.
Leviticus 27:29 No person set apart for destruction may be ransomed; he must surely be put to death.
- שֶׁבֶר sheberbreaking, fracture, crushing, breach, crashtranslated this way 17 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s H7667Noun · Translated: destruction 17, wound 4, brokenness 3, broken 2Full study and all 42 verses →
Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Isaiah 15:5 My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim.
- חֵרֶם chêremdevoted thingtranslated this way 15 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s H2764Noun · Translated: devoted 5, set apart for destruction 4, things devoted to destruction 4, net 4Full study and all 30 verses →
Deuteronomy 7:26 And you must not bring any detestable thing into your house, or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. You are to utterly detest and abhor it, because it is set apart for destruction.
Joshua 6:18 But keep away from the things devoted to destruction, lest you yourself be set apart for destruction. If you take any of these, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and bring disaster upon it.
- שֹׁד shôdviolence, havoc, devastation, ruintranslated this way 13 times of its 25 uses · Strong’s H7701Noun · Translated: destruction 13, violence 3, ruin 2, devastation 2Full study and all 24 verses →
Job 5:22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the beasts of the earth.
Isaiah 13:6 Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
- הַוָּה havvâhdesiretranslated this way 6 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H1942Noun · Translated: destruction 6Full study and all 15 verses →
Job 30:13 They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them.
Psalm 5:9 For not a word they speak can be trusted; destruction lies within them. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.
- שָׁמַד shâmadbe exterminated, destroyedtranslated this way 5 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s H8045Verb · Translated: destroyed 37, destroy 25, destruction 5, wipe 3Full study and all 86 verses →
1 Kings 13:34 And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth.
2 Chronicles 20:23 The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction. And when they had finished off the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.
- כָּלָה kâlâhcompletion, complete destruction, consumption, annihilationtranslated this way 5 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s H3617Noun · Translated: destruction 4, end 4, destroy 2Full study and all 17 verses →
Isaiah 10:23 For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land.
Jeremiah 4:27 For this is what the LORD says: “The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.
- שָׁחַת shâchathgo to ruin (?)translated this way 4 times of its 145 uses · Strong’s H7843Verb · Translated: destroy 58, destroyed 13, corrupt 7, corrupted 5Full study and all 135 verses →
Numbers 32:15 For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave this people in the wilderness, and you will be the cause of their destruction.”
2 Chronicles 26:16 But when Uzziah became powerful, his arrogance led to his own destruction. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God, for he entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
- מַשְׁחִית mashchîthruin, destructiontranslated this way 3 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H4889Noun · Translated: destroy 3, destruction 3Full study and all 11 verses →
2 Chronicles 22:4 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as the house of Ahab had done, for to his destruction they were his counselors after the death of his father.
Ezekiel 5:16 When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food.
- אָבַד âbadperishtranslated this way 2 times of its 179 uses · Strong’s H6Verb · Translated: perish 53, destroy 27, perished 15, destroyed 14Full study and all 173 verses →
Deuteronomy 7:10 But those who hate Him He repays to their faces with destruction; He will not hesitate to repay to his face the one who hates Him.
Obadiah 1:12 But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress.
- חֶבֶל chebelcord, territory, bandtranslated this way 2 times of its 60 uses · Strong’s H2256Noun · Translated: cords 10, ropes 9, region 4, pain 3Full study and all 58 verses →
Job 21:17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come upon them? Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?
Micah 2:10 Arise and depart, for this is not your place of rest, because its defilement brings destruction— a grievous destruction!
- אֵיד êddistress, calamitytranslated this way 2 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H343Noun · Translated: calamity 13, disaster 8, destruction 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Proverbs 1:27 when your dread comes like a storm, and your destruction like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish overwhelm you.
Proverbs 24:22 For they will bring sudden destruction. Who knows what ruin they can bring?
- מְחִתָּה mechittâhterror, destruction, ruintranslated this way 2 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H4288Noun · Translated: ruin 3, terror 3, destruction 2, rubble 1Full study and all 11 verses →
Proverbs 10:14 The wise store up knowledge, but the mouth of the fool invites destruction.
Proverbs 10:29 The way of the LORD is a refuge to the upright, but destruction awaits those who do evil.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀπώλεια apṓleiadestruction, ruin, losstranslated this way 13 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s G684Noun · Translated: destruction 13, waste 2, destroyed 1, destructive 1Full study and all 16 verses →
Matthew 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
John 17:12 While I was with them, I protected and preserved them by Your name, the name You gave Me. Not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.
- ὄλεθρος ólethrosruin, doom, destructiontranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G3639Noun · Translated: destruction 3, ruin 1Full study and all 4 verses →
1 Corinthians 5:5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 5:3 While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
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.