Word study

Wail

4 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: wail, wailing, wailed, wails. 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 “wail” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • יָלַל yâlalhowl, make a howlingtranslated this way 29 times of its 30 uses · Strong’s H3213Verb  ·  Translated: wail 27, wails 1, taunt 1, turn to wailing 1

    Isaiah 13:6 Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

    Jeremiah 4:8 So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”

    Full study and all 28 verses →
  • מִסְפֵּד mispêdwailingtranslated this way 8 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H4553Noun  ·  Translated: wailing 6, mourning 5, wailed 1, lamented 1

    Genesis 50:10 When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.

    Isaiah 22:12 On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.

    Full study and all 13 verses →
  • יְלָלָה yelâlâhhowlingtranslated this way 4 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H3215Noun  ·  Translated: wailing 3, wail 1

    Isaiah 15:8 For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab. Their wailing reaches Eglaim; it is heard in Beer-elim.

    Jeremiah 25:36 Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wailing of the leaders of the flock, for the LORD is destroying their pasture.

    Full study and all 4 verses →
  • נְהִי nehîwailing, lamentation, mourning songtranslated this way 3 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H5092Noun  ·  Translated: wailing 2, lament 1, wail 1, mourning 1

    Jeremiah 9:10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.

    Jeremiah 9:19 For the sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How devastated we are! How great is our shame! For we have abandoned the land because our dwellings have been torn down.’”

    Full study and all 6 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • θρηνέω thrēnéōI wail, lamenttranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s G2354Verb  ·  Translated: sang a dirge 2, wailing 1, wail 1

    Luke 23:27 A great number of people followed Him, including women who kept mourning and wailing for Him.

    John 16:20 Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

    Full study and all 4 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.