Word study

Plague

6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: plague, plagues. 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 “plague” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • דֶּבֶר deberpestilencetranslated this way 48 times of its 49 uses · Strong’s H1698Noun  ·  Translated: plague 43, plagues 3, make the plague 1, days of plague 1

    Exodus 5:3 “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they answered. “Please let us go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the LORD our God, or He may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

    Leviticus 26:25 And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

    Full study and all 48 verses →
  • מַגֵּפָה maggêphâhblow, slaughter, plague, pestilencetranslated this way 20 times of its 25 uses · Strong’s H4046Noun  ·  Translated: plague 18, slaughter 3, plagues 1, since the plague 1

    Exodus 9:14 Otherwise, I will send all My plagues against you and your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth.

    Numbers 14:37 those men who had brought out the bad report about the land— were struck down by a plague before the LORD.

    Full study and all 25 verses →
  • מַכָּה makkâhblow, wound, slaughtertranslated this way 6 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s H4347Noun  ·  Translated: wounds 9, slaughter 7, wound 7, plagues 4

    Leviticus 26:21 If you walk in hostility toward Me and refuse to obey Me, I will multiply your plagues seven times, according to your sins.

    Numbers 11:33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD burned against the people, and the LORD struck them with a severe plague.

    Full study and all 43 verses →
  • נֶגֶף negephblow, strikingtranslated this way 6 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H5063Noun  ·  Translated: plague 5, seeing that the plague 1, stumbling 1

    Exodus 12:13 The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a sign; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

    Numbers 8:19 And I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and his sons from among the Israelites, to perform the service for the Israelites at the Tent of Meeting and to make atonement on their behalf, so that no plague will come against the Israelites when they approach the sanctuary.”

    Full study and all 7 verses →
  • נֶגַע negastroke, plague, mark, plague-spottranslated this way 5 times of its 64 uses · Strong’s H5061Noun  ·  Translated: infection 12, mildew 12, contaminated 6, plague 4

    Genesis 12:17 The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai.

    Exodus 11:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will bring upon Pharaoh and Egypt one more plague. After that, he will allow you to leave this place. And when he lets you go, he will drive you out completely.

    Full study and all 56 verses →
  • נָגַף nâgaphstrike, smitetranslated this way 2 times of its 48 uses · Strong’s H5062Verb  ·  Translated: defeated 17, strike 9, struck 6, routed 3

    Exodus 8:2 But if you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs.

    Exodus 32:35 And the LORD sent a plague on the people because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron had made.

    Full study and all 46 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πληγή plēgḗa blow, stripe, woundtranslated this way 12 times of its 20 uses · Strong’s G4127Noun  ·  Translated: plagues 10, beatings 2, plague 2, wound 2

    Revelation 9:18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that proceeded from their mouths.

    Revelation 9:20 Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

    Full study and all 20 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.

What the Bible says about plague: passages by topic →

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.