Word study

Fury

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

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

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • חֵמָה chêmâhheat, ragetranslated this way 22 times of its 121 uses · Strong’s H2534Noun  ·  Translated: wrath 69, fury 22, venom 5, rage 4

    Genesis 27:44 Stay with him for a while, until your brother’s fury subsides—

    Leviticus 26:28 then I will walk in fury against you, and I, even I, will punish you sevenfold for your sins.

    Full study and all 114 verses →
  • עֶבְרָה ebrâhoverflow, arrogance, furytranslated this way 10 times of its 34 uses · Strong’s H5678Noun  ·  Translated: wrath 15, fury 10, anger 2, rage 2

    Job 40:11 Unleash the fury of your wrath; look on every proud man and bring him low.

    Psalm 7:6 Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment.

    Full study and all 34 verses →
  • חָרוֹן chârôn(burning of) angertranslated this way 5 times of its 41 uses · Strong’s H2740Noun  ·  Translated: fierce 10, burning anger 8, fierce anger 7, fury 4

    2 Kings 23:26 Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the fury of His burning anger, which was kindled against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke Him to anger.

    Job 20:23 When he has filled his stomach, God will vent His fury upon him, raining it down on him as he eats.

    Full study and all 40 verses →
  • זַעַם zaamindignationtranslated this way 3 times of its 22 uses · Strong’s H2195Noun  ·  Translated: indignation 8, wrath 6, fury 3, anger 2

    Isaiah 10:25 For in just a little while My fury against you will subside, and My anger will turn to their destruction.”

    Habakkuk 3:12 You marched across the earth with fury; You threshed the nations in wrath.

    Full study and all 22 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • θυμός thymósan outburst of passion, wrathtranslated this way 3 times of its 17 uses · Strong’s G2372Noun  ·  Translated: rage 4, wrath 4, anger 3, fury 3

    Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea; with great fury the devil has come down to you, knowing he has only a short time.”

    Revelation 16:19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.

    Full study and all 17 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.