Word study
Doom
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: doom, doomed. 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 “doom” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עֵת êthtimetranslated this way 2 times of its 270 uses · Strong’s H6256Noun · Translated: time 182, times 22, season 10, when 6Full study and all 237 verses →
Psalm 81:15 Those who hate the LORD would feign obedience, and their doom would last forever.
- צְפִירָה tsephîrâhplait, chaplettranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6843Noun · Translated: Doom 2, diadem 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Ezekiel 7:7 Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy.
Ezekiel 7:10 Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed.
- עָתִיד âthîdready, preparedtranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s H6264Adjective · Translated: doom 1, ready 1, prepared 1, poised 1Full study and all 5 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.”
- תָּמַם tâmambe complete, finishedtranslated this way 1 time of its 56 uses · Strong’s H8552Verb · Translated: gone 6, finished 4, consumed 4, meet their end 3Full study and all 54 verses →
2 Kings 7:13 But one of his servants replied, “Please, have scouts take five of the horses that remain in the city. Their plight will be no worse than all the Israelites who are left here. You can see that all the Israelites here are doomed. So let us send them and find out.”
- שָׁדַד shâdaddeal violently with, despoil, devastate, ruintranslated this way 1 time of its 56 uses · Strong’s H7703Verb · Translated: destroyed 11, destroyer 10, destroy 5, devastated 5Full study and all 47 verses →
Psalm 137:8 O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
- בֶּהָלָה behâlâhdismay, sudden terror or ruintranslated this way 1 time of its 4 uses · Strong’s H928Noun · Translated: sudden terror 2, doomed to disaster 1, dismay 1Full study and all 4 verses →
Isaiah 65:23 They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to disaster; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD — they and their descendants with them.
- דָּמַם dâmambe or grow dumb, silent, stilltranslated this way 1 time of its 30 uses · Strong’s H1826Verb · Translated: still 4, silenced 4, rest 3, perish 2Full study and all 29 verses →
Jeremiah 8:14 Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
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.