Word study
Devastate
10 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: devastated, devastate, devastating. 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 “devastate” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׁמֵם shâmêmbe desoleted, appalledtranslated this way 5 times of its 85 uses · Strong’s H8074Verb · Translated: appalled 17, desolate 10, deserted 5, desolation 4Full study and all 81 verses →
Job 16:7 Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.
Psalm 79:7 for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland.
- שָׁדַד shâdaddeal violently with, despoil, devastate, ruintranslated this way 5 times of its 56 uses · Strong’s H7703Verb · Translated: destroyed 11, destroyer 10, destroy 5, devastated 5Full study and all 47 verses →
Isaiah 15:1 This is the burden against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night!
Jeremiah 4:30 And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.
- 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 →
Psalm 78:45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them, and frogs that devastated them.
Jeremiah 51:25 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, you who devastate the whole earth, declares the LORD. I will stretch out My hand against you; I will roll you over the cliffs and turn you into a charred mountain.
- כָּלָה kâlâhbe complete, at an end, finished, accomplished, spenttranslated this way 1 time of its 206 uses · Strong’s H3615Verb · Translated: finished 54, fail 12, consumed 9, completed 7Full study and all 200 verses →
Genesis 41:30 but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will devastate the land.
- כָּתַת kâthathbeat, crush by beatingtranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H3807Verb · Translated: crushed 4, beat 3, routed 2, smashed to pieces 2Full study and all 17 verses →
Zechariah 11:6 For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.”
- רַע rabad, eviltranslated this way 1 time of its 651 uses · Strong’s H7451Adjective · Translated: evil 263, disaster 72, harm 38, wicked 31Full study and all 615 verses →
Deuteronomy 6:22 Before our eyes the LORD inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household.
- נָכָה nâkâhsmitetranslated this way 1 time of its 496 uses · Strong’s H5221Verb · Translated: struck 145, strike 59, put 31, defeated 28Full study and all 460 verses →
Judges 11:33 With a great blow he devastated twenty cities from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.
- חָרַב chârabbe dry, dried uptranslated this way 1 time of its 38 uses · Strong’s H2717Verb · Translated: dried 7, laid waste 6, dry 4, Kill 2Full study and all 36 verses →
Ezekiel 19:7 He broke down their strongholds and devastated their cities. The land and everything in it shuddered at the sound of his roaring.
- שֹׁד shôdviolence, havoc, devastation, ruintranslated this way 1 time of its 25 uses · Strong’s H7701Noun · Translated: destruction 13, violence 3, ruin 2, devastation 2Full study and all 24 verses →
Hosea 10:14 the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished as Shalman devastated Beth-arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children.
- רָשַׁשׁ râshashbeat down, shattertranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H7567Verb · Translated: destroy 1, devastated 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Malachi 1:4 Though Edom may say, “We have been devastated, but we will rebuild the ruins,” this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Land of Wickedness, and a people with whom the LORD is indignant forever.
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.