Word study

Wither

4 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: withered, wither, withers. 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 “wither” 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)

  • יָבֵשׁ yâbêshbe dry, dried up, witheredtranslated this way 23 times of its 59 uses · Strong’s H3001Verb  ·  Translated: dried 15, dry 13, withered 9, wither 5

    1 Kings 13:4 Now when King Jeroboam, who was at the altar in Bethel, heard the word that the man of God had cried out against it, he stretched out his hand and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward him withered, so that he could not pull it back.

    Job 15:30 He will not escape from the darkness; the flame will wither his shoots, and the breath of God’s mouth will carry him away.

    Full study and all 53 verses →
  • נָבֵל nâbêlbe senseless, foolishtranslated this way 7 times of its 24 uses · Strong’s H5034Verb  ·  Translated: wither 4, fall 3, lose heart 2, fading 2

    Psalm 1:3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.

    Isaiah 1:30 For you will become like an oak whose leaves are withered, like a garden without water.

    Full study and all 21 verses →
  • אָמַל âmalbe weak, languishtranslated this way 4 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s H535Verb  ·  Translated: waste away 3, withered 2, languishes 2

    Isaiah 16:8 For the fields of Heshbon have withered, along with the grapevines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations have trampled its choicest vines, which had reached as far as Jazer and spread toward the desert. Their shoots had spread out and passed over the sea.

    Joel 1:12 The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple— all the trees of the orchard— are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.

    Full study and all 13 verses →
  • נָמַל nâmalbecome clipped, circumcisedtranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H5243Verb  ·  Translated: withers away 1, wither away 1, cut 1, wither 1

    Job 14:2 Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

    Psalm 37:2 For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants.

    Full study and all 4 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • ξηραίνω xēraínōI dry up, parch, ripentranslated this way 11 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s G3583Verb  ·  Translated: withered 7, withers 3

    Matthew 13:6 But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

    Mark 3:1 Once again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there.

    Full study and all 15 verses →
  • ξηρός xērósdry, withered, dry landtranslated this way 4 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s G3584Adjective  ·  Translated: withered 4, dry 2, paralyzed 1

    Matthew 12:10 and a man with a withered hand was there. In order to accuse Jesus, they asked Him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

    Mark 3:3 Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up among us.”

    Full study and all 7 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.