Word study
Parched
11 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “parched”. 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 “parched” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- חָרַב chârabbe dry, dried uptranslated this way 2 times of its 38 uses · Strong’s H2717Verb · Translated: dried 7, laid waste 6, dry 4, Kill 2Full study and all 36 verses →
Job 14:11 As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry,
Isaiah 19:5 The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty.
- שׁוֹא shôravage (?)translated this way 1 time of its 12 uses · Strong’s H7722Noun · Translated: ruin 2, devastation 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Job 38:27 to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?
- חָרַר chârarbe hot, scorched, burn poettranslated this way 1 time of its 10 uses · Strong’s H2787Verb · Translated: burn 2, burned 2, charred 2Full study and all 10 verses →
Psalm 69:3 I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
- אֶרֶץ eretsearth, landtranslated this way 1 time of its 2,375 uses · Strong’s H776Noun · Translated: land 1,483, earth 564, ground 119, lands 41Full study and all 2,120 verses →
- צִחֶה tsichehparchedtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H6704Adjective · Translated: parched 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Isaiah 5:13 Therefore My people will go into exile for their lack of understanding; their dignitaries are starving and their masses are parched with thirst.
- שָׁקַק shâqaqrun, run about, rushtranslated this way 1 time of its 6 uses · Strong’s H8264Verb · Translated: thirsty 1, charging 1, parched 1, men sweep 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Isaiah 29:8 as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. So will it be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.
- שָׁרָב shârâbburning heattranslated this way 1 time of its 2 uses · Strong’s H8273Noun · Translated: parched ground 1, scorching heat 1Full study and all 2 verses →
Isaiah 35:7 The parched ground will become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water. In the haunt where jackals once lay, there will be grass and reeds and papyrus.
- נָשַׁת nâshathbe dry, parchedtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H5405Verb · Translated: empty 1, parched 1, exhausted 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Isaiah 41:17 The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
- חָרֵר chârêrparched placetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H2788Noun · Translated: parched places 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Jeremiah 17:6 He will be like a shrub in the desert; he will not see when prosperity comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
- צָמָא tsâmâthirsttranslated this way 1 time of its 17 uses · Strong’s H6772Noun · Translated: thirst 15, parched ground 1, thirsty 1Full study and all 17 verses →
Jeremiah 48:18 Come down from your glory; sit on parched ground, O daughter dwelling in Dibon, for the destroyer of Moab has come against you; he has destroyed your fortresses.
- צִיָּה tsîâhdryness, droughttranslated this way 1 time of its 16 uses · Strong’s H6723Adjective · Translated: dry 7, dry land 3, drought 2, desert 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Hosea 2:3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
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.