Word study

Overwhelm

6 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: overwhelmed, overwhelm, overwhelming, overwhelms. 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 “overwhelm” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • בָּעַת bâathfall upon, startle, terrifytranslated this way 3 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H1204Verb  ·  Translated: terrify 4, overwhelmed 2, frighten 2

    2 Samuel 22:5 For the waves of death engulfed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.

    Job 3:5 May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it; may the blackness of the day overwhelm it.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • עָבַר âbarpass over, through, by, pass ontranslated this way 3 times of its 542 uses · Strong’s H5674Verb  ·  Translated: pass 62, crossed 57, cross 52, passed 35

    Psalm 38:4 For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.

    Psalm 124:4 then the floods would have engulfed us, then the torrent would have overwhelmed us,

    Full study and all 487 verses →
  • כָּסָה kâsâhcovertranslated this way 3 times of its 150 uses · Strong’s H3680Verb  ·  Translated: covered 51, cover 36, covers 16, covering 9

    Psalm 55:5 Fear and trembling grip me, and horror has overwhelmed me.

    Ezekiel 7:18 They will put on sackcloth, and terror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all their faces, and all their heads will be shaved.

    Full study and all 148 verses →
  • שָׁטַף shâṭaphoverflow, rinse or wash offtranslated this way 3 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H7857Verb  ·  Translated: rinsed 3, torrents 3, overflowing 2, like a flood 2

    Isaiah 28:15 For you said, “We have made a covenant with death; we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol. When the overwhelming scourge passes through it will not touch us, because we have made lies our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”

    Isaiah 28:18 Your covenant with death will be dissolved, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be trampled by it.

    Full study and all 29 verses →
  • פָּחַד pâchaddread, be in dread, in awetranslated this way 2 times of its 25 uses · Strong’s H6342Verb  ·  Translated: afraid 4, fear 4, tremble 3, overwhelmed 2

    Psalm 14:5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is in the company of the righteous.

    Psalm 53:5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of those who besieged you. You put them to shame, for God has despised them.

    Full study and all 25 verses →
  • טוּל ṭûlhurl, casttranslated this way 2 times of its 14 uses · Strong’s H2904Verb  ·  Translated: hurled 4, cast 4, hurl 2

    Job 41:9 Surely hope of overcoming him is false. Is not the sight of him overwhelming?

    Psalm 37:24 Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, for the LORD is holding his hand.

    Full study and all 14 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.