Word study
Wipe
5 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: wipe, wiped, wipes, wiping. 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 “wipe” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- מָחָה mâchâhwipe, wipe outtranslated this way 8 times of its 33 uses · Strong’s H4229Verb · Translated: blot 11, blotted 8, wipe 2, wipes 2Full study and all 30 verses →
Genesis 7:4 For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.”
Judges 21:17 They added, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out.
- כָּלָה kâlâhbe complete, at an end, finished, accomplished, spenttranslated this way 4 times of its 206 uses · Strong’s H3615Verb · Translated: finished 54, fail 12, consumed 9, completed 7Full study and all 200 verses →
Exodus 32:12 Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.
1 Samuel 15:18 and sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and devote to destruction the sinful Amalekites. Fight against them until you have wiped them out.’
- אָבַד âbadperishtranslated this way 4 times of its 179 uses · Strong’s H6Verb · Translated: perish 53, destroy 27, perished 15, destroyed 14Full study and all 173 verses →
Deuteronomy 7:24 He will hand their kings over to you, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand against you; you will annihilate them.
Psalm 21:10 You will wipe their descendants from the earth, and their offspring from the sons of men.
- שָׁמַד shâmadbe exterminated, destroyedtranslated this way 3 times of its 88 uses · Strong’s H8045Verb · Translated: destroyed 37, destroy 25, destruction 5, wipe 3Full study and all 86 verses →
Deuteronomy 6:15 For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise the anger of the LORD your God will be kindled against you, and He will wipe you off the face of the earth.
Joshua 9:24 The Gibeonites answered, “Your servants were told clearly that the LORD your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land and wipe out all its inhabitants before you. So we greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we have done this.
- כָּרַת kârathcut off, cut downtranslated this way 2 times of its 284 uses · Strong’s H3772Verb · Translated: cut 144, made 47, make 28, fail 7Full study and all 276 verses →
Joshua 7:9 When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?”
Psalm 34:16 But the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to wipe out all memory of them from the earth.
Greek words (New Testament)
- ἐκμάσσω ekmássōI wipe, wipe off thoroughlytranslated this way 4 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G1591Verb · Translated: wipe 2, wiped 2, dry 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Luke 7:38 As she stood behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Then she kissed His feet and anointed them with the perfume.
John 11:2 (Mary, whose brother Lazarus was sick, was to anoint the Lord with perfume and wipe His feet with her hair.)
- ἐξαλείφω exaleíphōI wipe away, obliteratetranslated this way 3 times of its 5 uses · Strong’s G1813Verb · Translated: wipe away 2, wiped away 1, canceled 1, never blot 1Full study and all 5 verses →
Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,
Revelation 7:17 For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd. ‘He will lead them to springs of living water,’ and ‘God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
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.