Word study
Ravage
9 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: ravaged, ravage, ravaging, ravages. 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 “ravage” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׁחַת shâchathgo to ruin (?)translated this way 5 times of its 145 uses · Strong’s H7843Verb · Translated: destroy 58, destroyed 13, corrupt 7, corrupted 5Full study and all 135 verses →
Judges 6:5 For the Midianites came with their livestock and their tents like a great swarm of locusts. They and their camels were innumerable, and they entered the land to ravage it.
1 Samuel 6:5 Make images of your tumors and of the rats that are ravaging the land. Give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land.
- שָׁדַד shâdaddeal violently with, despoil, devastate, ruintranslated this way 2 times of its 56 uses · Strong’s H7703Verb · Translated: destroyed 11, destroyer 10, destroy 5, devastated 5Full study and all 47 verses →
Jeremiah 5:6 Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces. For their rebellious acts are many, and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.
Ezekiel 32:12 I will make your hordes fall by the swords of the mighty, the most ruthless of all nations. They will ravage the pride of Egypt and all her multitudes will be destroyed.
- לָחַם lâchamfight, do battletranslated this way 1 time of its 175 uses · Strong’s H3898Verb · Translated: fight 77, fought 45, fighting 16, waged war 6Full study and all 170 verses →
Deuteronomy 32:24 They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.
- שְׁמָמָה shemâmâha devastation, wastetranslated this way 1 time of its 56 uses · Strong’s H8077Noun · Translated: desolate 26, desolation 19, wasteland 4Full study and all 52 verses →
Isaiah 6:11 Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,
- 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 →
- תַּחֲלוּא tachălûmaladytranslated this way 1 time of its 5 uses · Strong’s H8463Noun · Translated: diseases 2, sicknesses 1, pain 1, ravaged 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Jeremiah 14:18 If I go out to the country, I see those slain by the sword; if I enter the city, I see those ravaged by famine! For both prophet and priest travel to a land they do not know.’”
- שָׁמֵם shâmêmbe desoleted, appalledtranslated this way 1 time of its 85 uses · Strong’s H8074Verb · Translated: appalled 17, desolate 10, deserted 5, desolation 4Full study and all 81 verses →
1 Samuel 5:6 Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.
- שׁוֹא shôravage (?)translated this way 1 time of its 12 uses · Strong’s H7722Noun · Translated: ruin 2, devastation 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Psalm 35:17 How long, O Lord, will You look on? Rescue my soul from their ravages, my precious life from these lions.
- כִּרְסֵם kirsêmtear offtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H3765Verb · Translated: ravages 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Psalm 80:13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and the creatures of the field feed upon it.
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.