Word study
Unleash
7 Hebrew words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: unleash, unleashed, unleashes. 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 “unleash” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- שָׁלַח shâlachsendtranslated this way 4 times of its 829 uses · Strong’s H7971Verb · Translated: sent 334, send 126, go 43, sending 19Full study and all 783 verses →
Exodus 15:7 You overthrew Your adversaries by Your great majesty. You unleashed Your burning wrath; it consumed them like stubble.
Psalm 50:19 You unleash your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit.
- רוּק rûqmake empty, empty outtranslated this way 2 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H7324Verb · Translated: draw 6, empty 3, pour 2, poured 2Full study and all 19 verses →
Ezekiel 5:2 When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.
Ezekiel 5:12 A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.
- נָתַר nâtharspring or start uptranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H5425Verb · Translated: hopping 1, makes 1, unleash 1, leaps 1Full study and all 8 verses →
Job 6:9 that God would be willing to crush me, to unleash His hand and cut me off!
- פּוּץ pûtsbe dispersed, scatteredtranslated this way 1 time of its 67 uses · Strong’s H6327Verb · Translated: scattered 30, scatter 15, disperse 5, deserted 2Full study and all 66 verses →
Job 40:11 Unleash the fury of your wrath; look on every proud man and bring him low.
- עוּר ûrrouse oneself, awaketranslated this way 1 time of its 80 uses · Strong’s H5782Verb · Translated: Awake 19, stirred 9, awaken 6, rouse 5Full study and all 65 verses →
Psalm 78:38 And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.
- שָׁרָה shârâhlet loosetranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s H8281Verb · Translated: unleashes 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Job 37:3 He unleashes His lightning beneath the whole sky and sends it to the ends of the earth.
- נָשַׁב nâshabblowtranslated this way 1 time of its 3 uses · Strong’s H5380Verb · Translated: drove them away 1, unleashes 1, blows 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Psalm 147:18 He sends forth His word and melts them; He unleashes His winds, and the waters flow.
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.