Word study
Fail
14 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: fail, failed, fails, failing. 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 “fail” 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)
- לֹא lônottranslated this way 49 times of its 4,657 uses · Strong’s H3808Adverb · Translated: no 309, not 269, never 218, will not 156Full study and all 3,775 verses →
Genesis 42:37 Then Reuben said to his father, “You may kill my two sons if I fail to bring him back to you. Put him in my care, and I will return him.”
- כָּלָה kâlâhbe complete, at an end, finished, accomplished, spenttranslated this way 15 times of its 206 uses · Strong’s H3615Verb · Translated: finished 54, fail 12, consumed 9, completed 7Full study and all 200 verses →
1 Samuel 2:33 And every one of you that I do not cut off from My altar, I will cause your eyes to fail and your heart to grieve. All your descendants will die by the sword of men.
Job 11:20 But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and escape will elude them; they will hope for their last breath.”
- נָפַל nâphalfall, lietranslated this way 7 times of its 432 uses · Strong’s H5307Verb · Translated: fall 104, fell 77, fallen 54, falls 21Full study and all 403 verses →
Joshua 21:45 Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel had failed; everything was fulfilled.
1 Samuel 17:32 And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him!”
- כָּרַת kârathcut off, cut downtranslated this way 7 times of its 284 uses · Strong’s H3772Verb · Translated: cut 144, made 47, make 28, fail 7Full study and all 276 verses →
1 Kings 2:4 and so that the LORD may fulfill His promise to me: ‘If your descendants take heed to walk faithfully before Me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’
1 Kings 8:25 Therefore now, O LORD, God of Israel, keep for Your servant, my father David, what You promised when You said: ‘You will never fail to have a man to sit before Me on the throne of Israel, if only your descendants guard their way to walk before Me as you have done.’
- בִּלְתִּי biltînot, excepttranslated this way 3 times of its 104 uses · Strong’s H1115Preposition-l · Translated: not 12, no 8, nothing 4, without 4Full study and all 101 verses →
Leviticus 20:4 And if the people of the land ever hide their eyes and fail to put to death the man who gives one of his children to Molech,
Deuteronomy 8:11 Be careful not to forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments and ordinances and statutes, which I am giving you this day.
- חָדַל châdalceasetranslated this way 3 times of its 57 uses · Strong’s H2308Verb · Translated: stopped 9, stop 6, refrain 5, cease 4Full study and all 55 verses →
Numbers 9:13 But if a man who is ceremonially clean and is not on a journey still fails to observe the Passover, he must be cut off from his people, because he did not present the LORD’s offering at its appointed time. That man will bear the consequences of his sin.
Job 14:7 For there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender shoots will not fail.
- בַּל balnottranslated this way 3 times of its 63 uses · Strong’s H1077Adverb · Translated: never 8, cannot 7, will not 4, i will not 3Full study and all 54 verses →
Isaiah 26:10 Though grace is shown to the wicked man, he does not learn righteousness. In the land of righteousness he acts unjustly and fails to see the majesty of the LORD.
Hosea 7:2 But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.
- עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 2 times of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb · Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35Full study and all 487 verses →
- עָשֵׁשׁ âshêshwaste awaytranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6244Verb · Translated: fail 2, wasting away 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Psalm 6:7 My eyes fail from grief; they grow dim because of all my foes.
Psalm 31:9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.
- כָּשַׁל kâshalstumble, stagger, tottertranslated this way 2 times of its 63 uses · Strong’s H3782Verb · Translated: stumble 23, stumbled 7, fall 5, stumbles 4Full study and all 59 verses →
Nehemiah 4:10 Meanwhile, the people of Judah said: “The strength of the laborer fails, and there is so much rubble that we will never be able to rebuild the wall.”
Daniel 11:14 In those times many will rise up against the king of the South. Violent ones among your own people will exalt themselves in fulfillment of the vision, but they will fail.
- כָּחַשׁ kâchashbe disappointing, deceive, fail, grow leantranslated this way 2 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H3584Verb · Translated: cower 4, denied 2, lied 2, deny 2Full study and all 22 verses →
Hosea 9:2 The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail them.
Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,
- 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 →
Ezekiel 12:22 “Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel: ‘The days go by, and every vision fails’?
Amos 2:14 Escape will fail the swift, the strong will not prevail by his strength, and the mighty will not save his life.
- עָזַב âzableave, forsake, loosetranslated this way 2 times of its 214 uses · Strong’s H5800Verb · Translated: forsaken 47, forsake 36, leave 23, abandoned 22Full study and all 206 verses →
Psalm 38:10 My heart pounds, my strength fails, and even the light of my eyes has faded.
Psalm 40:12 For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.
- חָטָא châṭâmisstranslated this way 2 times of its 233 uses · Strong’s H2398Verb · Translated: sinned 73, sin 33, committed 26, sins 21Full study and all 217 verses →
Proverbs 8:36 But he who fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.”
Isaiah 65:20 No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days, or an old man fail to live out his years. For the youth will die at a hundred years, and he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.
Greek words (New Testament)
- οὐ ouno, nottranslated this way 3 times of its 704 uses · Strong’s G3756Adverb · Translated: not 470, no 123, never 26, nothing 12Full study and all 643 verses →
Matthew 7:3 Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?
Luke 6:41 Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?
- ἀδόκιμος adókimosfailing to pass the testtranslated this way 3 times of its 8 uses · Strong’s G96Adjective · Translated: disqualified 2Full study and all 8 verses →
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you — unless you fail the test?
2 Corinthians 13:6 And I hope you will realize that we have not failed the test.
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.