Word study
Slaughter
12 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: slaughter, slaughtered, slaughters, slaughtering. 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 “slaughter” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׁחַט shâchaṭslaughter, beattranslated this way 73 times of its 80 uses · Strong’s H7819Verb · Translated: slaughtered 40, slaughter 26, killed 3, slaughters 2Full study and all 70 verses →
Genesis 22:10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
Exodus 12:6 You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
- הָרַג hâragkill, slaytranslated this way 11 times of its 159 uses · Strong’s H2026Verb · Translated: killed 50, kill 49, slain 12, slaughtered 6Full study and all 156 verses →
Genesis 34:25 Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male.
1 Kings 18:13 Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel slaughtered the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred prophets of the LORD, fifty men per cave, and I provided them with food and water.
- טֶבַח ṭebachslaughtering, slaughtertranslated this way 10 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H2874Noun · Translated: slaughter 9, animal 1, meat 1, slaughtered 1Full study and all 12 verses →
Proverbs 7:22 He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,
Isaiah 34:2 The LORD is angry with all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will devote them to destruction; He will give them over to slaughter.
- טָבַח ṭâbachslaughter, butcher, slaytranslated this way 8 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s H2873Verb · Translated: slaughter 4, slaughtered 3, slaughters 1, slay 1Full study and all 10 verses →
Genesis 43:16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with his brothers, he said to the steward of his house, “Take these men to my house. Slaughter an animal and prepare it, for they shall dine with me at noon.”
Exodus 22:1 “If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he must repay five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep.
- מַכָּה makkâhblow, wound, slaughtertranslated this way 7 times of its 44 uses · Strong’s H4347Noun · Translated: wounds 9, slaughter 7, wound 7, plagues 4Full study and all 43 verses →
Joshua 10:10 And the LORD threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great slaughter at Gibeon, pursued them along the ascent to Beth-horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.
Judges 15:8 And he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter, and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
- זָבַח zâbachslaughter for sacrificetranslated this way 5 times of its 132 uses · Strong’s H2076Verb · Translated: sacrifice 38, sacrificed 29, offer 17, offered 11Full study and all 127 verses →
Deuteronomy 12:15 But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer,
1 Samuel 28:24 The woman had a fattened calf at her house, and she quickly slaughtered it. She also took flour, kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread.
- נָכָה nâkâhsmitetranslated this way 4 times of its 496 uses · Strong’s H5221Verb · Translated: struck 145, strike 59, put 31, defeated 28Full study and all 460 verses →
1 Samuel 11:11 The next day Saul organized the troops into three divisions, and during the morning watch they invaded the camp of the Ammonites and slaughtered them, until the hottest part of the day. And the survivors were so scattered that no two of them were left together.
2 Samuel 1:1 After the death of Saul, David returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days.
- הֲרֵגָה hărêgâhslaughtertranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H2028Noun · Translated: Slaughter 3, carnage 1, marked for slaughter 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Jeremiah 7:32 So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.
Zechariah 11:4 This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter,
- מַגֵּפָה maggêphâhblow, slaughter, plague, pestilencetranslated this way 3 times of its 25 uses · Strong’s H4046Noun · Translated: plague 18, slaughter 3, plagues 1, since the plague 1Full study and all 25 verses →
1 Samuel 4:17 The messenger answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are both dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”
2 Samuel 17:9 Surely by now he is hiding in a cave or some other location. If some of your troops fall first, whoever hears of it will say, ‘There has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.’
- הֶרֶג heregslaughtertranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s H2027Noun · Translated: slaughter 2, killing 1, toward the slaughter 1, like those who slayed 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Proverbs 24:11 Rescue those being led away to death, and restrain those stumbling toward the slaughter.
Isaiah 30:25 And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.
- חָלָל châlâlpiercedtranslated this way 2 times of its 93 uses · Strong’s H2491Noun · Translated: slain 53, dead 6, killed 6, wounded 5Full study and all 84 verses →
Genesis 34:27 Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled.
Ezekiel 21:14 ‘So then, son of man, prophesy and strike your hands together. Let the sword strike two times, even three. It is a sword that slays, a sword of great slaughter closing in on every side!
- טִבְחָה ṭibchâhthing slaughtered, slaughtered meat, slaughtertranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H2878Noun · Translated: meat 1, slaughtered 1, slaughter 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Psalm 44:22 Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
Jeremiah 12:3 But You know me, O LORD; You see me and test my heart toward You. Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter and set them apart for the day of carnage.
Greek words (New Testament)
- σφαγή sphagḗslaughter, sacrificetranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G4967Noun · Translated: slaughter 2, slaughtered 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Acts 8:32 The eunuch was reading this passage of Scripture: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
Romans 8:36 As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
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.