Word study

Dread

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: dread, dreaded, dreads. 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 “dread” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • פַּחַד pachaddreadtranslated this way 11 times of its 49 uses · Strong’s H6343Noun  ·  Translated: fear 15, terror 12, dread 10, panic 3

    Exodus 15:16 and terror and dread will fall on them. By the power of Your arm they will be as still as a stone until Your people pass by, O LORD, until the people You have bought pass by.

    Deuteronomy 2:25 This very day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon all the nations under heaven. They will hear the reports of you and tremble in anguish because of you.”

    Full study and all 48 verses →
  • יָגֹר yâgôrbe afraid, feartranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H3025Verb  ·  Translated: dreaded 2, afraid 1, still dread 1, dread 1

    Deuteronomy 28:60 He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you.

    Job 3:25 For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • קוּץ qûtsfeel a loathing, abhorrence, sickening dreadtranslated this way 3 times of its 9 uses · Strong’s H6973Verb  ·  Translated: weary 1, Egyptians came to dread 1, abhorred 1, detest 1

    Exodus 1:12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

    Numbers 22:3 and Moab was terrified of the people because they were numerous. Indeed, Moab dreaded the Israelites.

    Full study and all 9 verses →
  • עָרַץ âratscause to tremble, trembletranslated this way 2 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H6206Verb  ·  Translated: terrified 4, feared 2, shake 2

    Isaiah 8:12 “Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread.

    Isaiah 8:13 The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.

    Full study and all 15 verses →
  • דָּאַג dâagbe anxious, concerned, feartranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H1672Verb  ·  Translated: start worrying 1, started worrying 1, troubled 1, dreaded 1

    Isaiah 57:11 Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lied and failed to remember Me or take this to heart? Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear Me?

    Jeremiah 42:16 then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow on your heels into Egypt, and you will die there.

    Full study and all 7 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. 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.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. 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.