Word study
Perish
9 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: perish, perished, perishing, perishes. 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 “perish” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- אָבַד âbadperishtranslated this way 78 times of its 179 uses · Strong’s H6Verb · Translated: perish 53, destroy 27, perished 15, destroyed 14Full study and all 173 verses →
Leviticus 26:38 You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will consume you.
Deuteronomy 4:26 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live long upon it, but will be utterly destroyed.
- גָּוַע gâvaexpire perish, dietranslated this way 9 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H1478Verb · Translated: die 6, perished 4, breathed his last 4, perish 3Full study and all 23 verses →
Genesis 6:17 And behold, I will bring floodwaters upon the earth to destroy every creature under the heavens that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will perish.
Numbers 17:12 Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!
- תָּמַם tâmambe complete, finishedtranslated this way 4 times of its 56 uses · Strong’s H8552Verb · Translated: gone 6, finished 4, consumed 4, meet their end 3Full study and all 54 verses →
Deuteronomy 2:14 The time we spent traveling from Kadesh-barnea until we crossed over the Brook of Zered was thirty-eight years, until that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
Jeremiah 24:10 And I will send against them sword and famine and plague, until they have perished from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’”
- כָּלָה kâlâhbe complete, at an end, finished, accomplished, spenttranslated this way 3 times of its 206 uses · Strong’s H3615Verb · Translated: finished 54, fail 12, consumed 9, completed 7Full study and all 200 verses →
Psalm 39:10 Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.
Isaiah 1:28 But rebels and sinners will together be shattered, and those who forsake the LORD will perish.
- מוּת mûthdietranslated this way 2 times of its 771 uses · Strong’s H4191Verb · Translated: die 198, died 152, dead 89, put to death 47Full study and all 694 verses →
Genesis 47:19 Why should we perish before your eyes— we and our land as well? Purchase us and our land in exchange for food. Then we, along with our land, will be slaves to Pharaoh. Give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.”
- דָּמַם dâmambe or grow dumb, silent, stilltranslated this way 2 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H1826Verb · Translated: still 4, silenced 4, rest 3, perish 2Full study and all 29 verses →
1 Samuel 2:9 He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness; for by his own strength shall no man prevail.
Jeremiah 8:14 Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
- 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 →
- דָּמָה dâmâhcease, cause to cease, cut off, destroytranslated this way 2 times of its 13 uses · Strong’s H1820Verb · Translated: destroyed 3, perish 2, ruined 2, silenced 2Full study and all 12 verses →
Psalm 49:12 But a man, despite his wealth, cannot endure; he is like the beasts that perish.
Psalm 49:20 A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
- כָּחַד kâchadhide, effacetranslated this way 2 times of its 32 uses · Strong’s H3582Verb · Translated: hide 8, hidden 4, conceal 3, destroyed 2Full study and all 30 verses →
Zechariah 11:9 Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish; and let those who remain devour one another’s flesh.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἀπόλλυμι apóllymiI destroy, lose, am perishingtranslated this way 24 times of its 90 uses · Strong’s G622Verb · Translated: lost 12, lose 11, perish 10, destroy 9Full study and all 84 verses →
Matthew 8:25 The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
Mark 4:38 But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?”
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.