Word study

Sudden

5 Hebrew words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “sudden”. 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 “sudden” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • פִּתְאוֹם pithômsuddennesstranslated this way 4 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H6597Adverb  ·  Translated: suddenly 16, sudden 3

    Job 9:23 When the scourge brings sudden death, He mocks the despair of the innocent.

    Proverbs 3:25 Do not fear sudden danger or the ruin that overtakes the wicked,

    Full study and all 24 verses →
  • בֶּהָלָה behâlâhdismay, sudden terror or ruintranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H928Noun  ·  Translated: sudden terror 2, doomed to disaster 1, dismay 1

    Leviticus 26:16 then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

    Psalm 78:33 So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • רֶגַע regaa momenttranslated this way 1 time of its 21 uses · Strong’s H7281Noun  ·  Translated: moment 9, instant 4

    Psalm 6:10 All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.

    Full study and all 21 verses →
  • בַּלָּהָה ballâhâhterror, dreadful event, calamity, destructiontranslated this way 1 time of its 10 uses · Strong’s H1091Noun  ·  Translated: Terrors 6, horrible end 2, sudden terror 1, object of horror 1

    Isaiah 17:14 In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.

    Full study and all 10 verses →
  • בָּהַל bâhalalarm, dismaytranslated this way 1 time of its 37 uses · Strong’s H926Verb  ·  Translated: terrified 8, dismayed 7, terror 3, rushed 2

    Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.

    Full study and all 37 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.

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.