What does βρέχω (bréchō) mean in the Bible?
The Greek verb brecho means to wet or moisten and can also mean to rain or send rain. Luke uses it when a woman wets Jesus' feet with her tears and when Jesus recalls fire and sulfur raining on Sodom.
Greek · G1026
βρέχω
To moisten (especially by a shower)
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βρέχωG1026
Pronunciationbréchō
What does βρέχω (bréchō) mean in the Bible?
The Greek verb brecho means to wet or moisten and can also mean to rain or send rain. Luke uses it when a woman wets Jesus' feet with her tears and when Jesus recalls fire and sulfur raining on Sodom.
Reader summary
Full entry for βρέχω (G1026) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render G1026?
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include it did not rain (1), rain (1), rained down (1), sends rain (1), she wet (1).
Where does βρέχω (bréchō) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 5:45. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (3), James (2), Matthew (1), Revelation (1).
What This Word Actually Means
The Greek verb brecho means to wet or moisten and can also mean to rain or send rain. Luke uses it when a woman wets Jesus' feet with her tears and when Jesus recalls fire and sulfur raining on Sodom. Jesus says in Matthew that the Father sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous within His command to love enemies. James uses the verb twice while recalling Elijah's prayers concerning rain, and Revelation uses it in an apocalyptic scene where two witnesses can shut the sky.
The shared verb does not make tears, ordinary rainfall, fiery judgment, prophetic prayer, and apocalyptic authority interchangeable. Context identifies what falls, who acts, and why. Brecho does not give believers a technique for controlling weather, does not label storms or droughts as judgments against their victims, and does not authorize leaders to claim the two witnesses' power.
Luke's tear-wetting scene should preserve the woman's dignity and Jesus' defense of her rather than sexualizing, shaming, or reenacting her action. Readers should distinguish concrete moisture from rain and figurative or judgment uses before making application.
How the Bible Uses It
Brecho names wetting or moistening and the falling or sending of rain, fire, or sulfur across hospitality, enemy-love teaching, judgment warning, prayer example, and apocalyptic vision.
- Matt.5.45
That you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Jesus says the Father sends sun and rain on both evil and good people within His command to love and pray for enemies.
- 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.
A weeping woman wets Jesus' feet with tears, wipes them with her hair, and anoints them while a host judges her.
- Luke.7.44
And turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give Me water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
Jesus turns toward the woman and contrasts her tear-wetting welcome with Simon's failure to provide water for His feet.
- Luke.17.29
But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
Jesus recalls fire and sulfur raining from heaven on Sodom within teaching about the unexpected revealing of the Son of Man.
- Jas.5.17
Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
James recalls Elijah earnestly praying that rain would stop, then praying again before rain and crops returned.
- Rev.11.6
These witnesses have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall during the days of their prophecy, and power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.
Revelation's two witnesses receive power to shut the sky during their prophetic days within a symbolic apocalyptic vision.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders Itit did not rain1×James 5:17
rain1×James 5:17
rained down1×Luke 17:29
sends rain1×Matthew 5:45
she wet1×Luke 7:44
to wet1×Luke 7:38
will fall1×Revelation 11:6
Show sample aligned rows
Matthew 5:45βρέχειtosends rainVerb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person SingularLuke 7:38βρέχεινtoto wetVerb - Present Infinitive ActiveLuke 7:44ἔβρεξένtoshe wetVerb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person SingularLuke 17:29ἔβρεξενtorained downVerb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person SingularJames 5:17βρέξαιtorainVerb - Aorist Infinitive ActiveJames 5:17ἔβρεξενtoit did not rainVerb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person SingularRevelation 11:6βρέχῃtowill fallVerb - Present Subjunctive Active - 3rd Person Singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned rowMatthew 5:45
Aligned rows7
Books represented4
Matthew1Luke3James2Revelation1
Source forms
ἔβρεξεν2xebrexenLuke 17:29, James 5:17
βρέξαι1xbrexaiJames 5:17
βρέχει1xbrecheiMatthew 5:45
βρέχειν1xbrecheinLuke 7:38
βρέχῃ1xbrechēRevelation 11:6
ἔβρεξέν1xebrexenLuke 7:44
Parsing patterns
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular3xLuke 7:44, Luke 17:29, James 5:17
Verb - Aorist Infinitive Active1xJames 5:17
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular1xMatthew 5:45
Verb - Present Infinitive Active1xLuke 7:38
Verb - Present Subjunctive Active - 3rd Person Singular1xRevelation 11:6
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Communities facing weather disasters need reliable information, practical aid, protection for vulnerable people, and prayer without blame.
- Teaching Luke 7 should preserve the woman's dignity and avoid practices that pressure people into intimate, public, or emotionally performative acts.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that brecho always means ordinary rain; it can describe wetting with tears or fire and sulfur raining down.
- Do not claim that righteous prayer guarantees control over rainfall, drought duration, crop yield, or disaster outcomes.
- Do not claim that a present leader possesses the two witnesses' authority because that power belongs to Revelation's own vision.
Evidence Summary
Greek word. to moisten (especially by a shower)
Strong'sG1026
Lexical occurrences7 versesGreek text appearances7 timesWord forms3 forms7 referencesVerse guides0 guides
Source Gloss
to moisten (especially by a shower)
Greek Text Appearances
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
Matthew 5:45Verb Third Person Singular Present Active Indicative
βρέχειbrecei
I moisten, rain, send rain
Read verseLuke 7:38Verb Present Active Infinitive
βρέχεινbrecein
I moisten, rain, send rain
Read verseLuke 7:44Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
ἔβρεξέebrexen
I moisten, rain, send rain
Read verseLuke 17:29Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
ἔβρεξεebrexen
I moisten, rain, send rain
Read verseJames 5:17Verb Aorist Active Infinitive
βρέξαι·brexai
I moisten, rain, send rain
Read verseJames 5:17Verb Third Person Singular Aorist Active Indicative
ἔβρεξενebrexen
I moisten, rain, send rain
Read verseRevelation 11:6Verb Third Person Singular Present Active Subjunctive
βρέχῃbrech
I moisten, rain, send rain
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
Grammatical Forms
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Form groups3Aligned forms7TensesAorist, PresentVoicesActive
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Tenses
Voices
Indicativestates a fact or reality4×
Aorist ActiveLuke 7:44 · Luke 17:29 · Jas 5:173×
Present ActiveMatt 5:451×
Infinitiveverbal noun — the action in abstract2×
Present ActiveLuke 7:381×
Aorist ActiveJas 5:171×
Subjunctivepossibility, probability, or purpose1×
Present ActiveRev 11:61×
Discourse Aspect
How this verb appears across 7 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect
Tense
aorist4present3
Voice
active7
Mood
indicative4infinitive2subjunctive1
NT Occurrences
Matthew 5:45βρέχειpresent active indicativeongoingLuke 7:38βρέχεινpresent active infinitiveinfinitiveLuke 7:44ἔβρεξένaorist active indicativecompletedLuke 17:29ἔβρεξενaorist active indicativecompletedJames 5:17βρέξαιaorist active infinitiveinfinitiveJames 5:17ἔβρεξενaorist active indicativecompletedRevelation 11:6βρέχῃpresent active subjunctivesubjunctive
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Word Origins
βρέχω is a primary verb - no further derivation.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Brecho gathers several kinds of falling moisture under one verb while context keeps their meanings apart. In Matthew, the Father's sun and rain reach righteous and unrighteous people as Jesus teaches enemy love that reflects the Father's character. In Luke 7, the woman's tears wet Jesus' feet, and Jesus publicly sees, defends, and forgives her while exposing Simon's failure of welcome.
The scene is about grace, love, hospitality, and restored dignity, not a ritual others may coerce or imitate. Luke 17 uses raining language for fiery judgment in a warning about the Son of Man. James points to Elijah as a human example of effective prayer, but he does not hand the church a weather-control formula or permit drought victims to be blamed. Revelation gives specific authority to two witnesses inside an apocalyptic vision, not to any leader who claims prophetic status.
Faithful teaching honors genre, agency, and consequences. It receives rain as creaturely provision, grief as embodied human expression, prayer as dependence on God, and judgment as God's prerogative while refusing disaster blame, manipulation, spectacle, and confident claims beyond the text.
Anchor passage
Matt.5.45
Doctrinal connections
- The Father's provision reaches people across moral divisions and grounds Jesus' command to love enemies.
- Jesus sees and defends a socially judged woman, receives her act of welcome, forgives her, and sends her in peace.
- Final judgment belongs to God and should not be reassigned casually to present weather or disaster events.
- Faithful prayer expresses dependence on God rather than human possession of natural processes.
- Rain and crop yield remind communities of creaturely dependence while drought carries real human and ecological costs.
- Apocalyptic authority belongs to the figures and timeframe identified by Revelation, not to self-appointed modern claimants.
Brecho is a Greek verb meaning to wet or moisten and, in later usage, to rain or send rain. It may take an object such as feet or fire and sulfur, or function with rain as the event. Syntax and genre distinguish ordinary moisture, weather, and judgment imagery.
From Old to New Testament
James explicitly connects Elijah's prayer with the Old Testament prophetic story, while Luke recalls Sodom. Those canonical links should follow the New Testament authors' use and should not turn every Old Testament rain, drought, or fire text into an instance of this Greek verb.