Word study
Disaster
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: disaster, disasters. 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 “disaster” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רַע rabad, eviltranslated this way 78 times of its 651 uses · Strong’s H7451Adjective · Translated: evil 263, disaster 72, harm 38, wicked 31Full study and all 615 verses →
Genesis 19:19 Your servant has indeed found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I cannot run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die.
Deuteronomy 29:21 and single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
- אֵיד êddistress, calamitytranslated this way 8 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s H343Noun · Translated: calamity 13, disaster 8, destruction 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:35 Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”
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?
- רָעַע râabe evil, badtranslated this way 4 times of its 97 uses · Strong’s H7489Verb · Translated: wicked 9, harm 8, evil 8, evildoers 8Full study and all 97 verses →
Joshua 24:20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and consume you, even after He has been good to you.”
Jeremiah 25:29 For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of Hosts.’
- אָוֶן âventrouble, sorrow, wickednesstranslated this way 3 times of its 68 uses · Strong’s H205Noun · Translated: iniquity 27, evil 6, wicked 6, disaster 3Full study and all 68 verses →
Numbers 23:21 He considers no disaster for Jacob; He sees no trouble for Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of the King is among them.
Psalm 55:3 at the voice of the enemy, at the pressure of the wicked. For they bring down disaster upon me and resent me in their anger.
- שֶׁבֶר sheberbreaking, fracture, crushing, breach, crashtranslated this way 2 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s H7667Noun · Translated: destruction 17, wound 4, brokenness 3, broken 2Full study and all 42 verses →
Jeremiah 4:20 Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.
- הֹוָה hôvâhruin, disastertranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H1943Noun · Translated: Disaster 2, calamity 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Ezekiel 7:26 Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor after rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction from the priests will perish, as will counsel from the elders.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ὕβρις hýbrisinsult, damage, losstranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G5196Noun · Translated: disaster 2, insults 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Acts 27:10 “Men, I can see that our voyage will be filled with disaster and great loss, not only to ship and cargo, but to our own lives as well.”
Acts 27:21 After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete. Then you would have averted this disaster and loss.
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.