Word study

Fierce

4 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “fierce”. 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 “fierce” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • חָרוֹן chârôn(burning of) angertranslated this way 18 times of its 41 uses · Strong’s H2740Noun  ·  Translated: fierce 10, burning anger 8, fierce anger 7, fury 4

    Exodus 32:12 Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.

    Numbers 25:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that His fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”

    Full study and all 40 verses →
  • חֳרִי chŏrîburningtranslated this way 3 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H2750Noun  ·  Translated: fierce 3, hot 1, outburst 1, great 1

    1 Samuel 20:34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger and did not eat any food that second day of the month, for he was grieved by his father’s shameful treatment of David.

    Isaiah 7:4 and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood— over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.

    Full study and all 6 verses →
  • קָשֶׁה qâshehhard, severetranslated this way 2 times of its 35 uses · Strong’s H7186Adjective  ·  Translated: stiff-necked 6, harshly 5, hard 3, stubborn 2

    2 Samuel 3:39 And I am weak this day, though anointed as king, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too fierce for me. May the LORD repay the evildoer according to his evil!”

    Isaiah 27:8 By warfare and exile You contended with her and removed her with a fierce wind, as on the day the east wind blows.

    Full study and all 35 verses →
  • עַז azstrong, mighty, fiercetranslated this way 2 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H5794Adjective  ·  Translated: strong 8, powerful 2

    Psalm 59:3 See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O LORD.

    Isaiah 19:4 I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of a harsh master, and a fierce king will rule over them,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

    Full study and all 22 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.