Word study
Threaten
5 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: threatened, threaten. 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 “threaten” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- דָבַר dâbarspeaktranslated this way 3 times of its 1,113 uses · Strong’s H1696Verb · Translated: speak 209, said 157, spoken 142, spoke 110Full study and all 1,025 verses →
Exodus 32:14 So the LORD relented from the calamity He had threatened to bring on His people.
- אָמַר âmarutter, saytranslated this way 1 time of its 4,555 uses · Strong’s H559Verb · Translated: said 1,531, says 576, say 352, replied 341Full study and all 3,827 verses →
- רַע rabad, eviltranslated this way 1 time of its 651 uses · Strong’s H7451Adjective · Translated: evil 263, disaster 72, harm 38, wicked 31Full study and all 615 verses →
Joshua 23:15 But just as every good thing the LORD your God promised you has come to pass, likewise the LORD will bring upon you the calamity He has threatened, until He has destroyed you from this good land He has given you.
- גָּדַל gâdalgrow up, become greattranslated this way 1 time of its 115 uses · Strong’s H1431Verb · Translated: great 14, grew 10, grown 7, greater 7Full study and all 114 verses →
Zephaniah 2:8 “I have heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, who have taunted My people and threatened their borders.
- הָתַת hâthathbreak in upon, assailtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H2050Verb · Translated: threaten 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Psalm 62:3 How long will you threaten a man? Will all of you throw him down like a leaning wall or a tottering fence?
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.