To desiccate; by implication, to shrivel, to mature
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Xeraino means to dry up, become withered, or cause something to lose its moisture and vitality. The New Testament uses it for seedlings scorched without root, a disabled hand, a flow of blood that stops, a branch separated from the vine, a flower fading under heat, and a river dried in judgment.
Reader summary
Full entry for ξηραίνω (G3583) · Open the biblical lexicon
Xeraino means to dry up, become withered, or cause something to lose its moisture and vitality. The New Testament uses it for seedlings scorched without root, a disabled hand, a flow of blood that stops, a branch separated from the vine, a flower fading under heat, and a river dried in judgment.
The BSB source-word alignment has 15 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include withered (3), withers (3), they withered (2), [the seedlings] withered (1), becomes rigid (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 13:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Mark (6), Matthew (3), Revelation (2), 1 Peter (1).
Xeraino means to dry up, become withered, or cause something to lose its moisture and vitality. The New Testament uses it for seedlings scorched without root, a disabled hand, a flow of blood that stops, a branch separated from the vine, a flower fading under heat, and a river dried in judgment. The shared image is loss of moisture, strength, or flourishing, but the theological meaning changes with the passage.
A withered hand becomes the setting for Jesus' restoring mercy; a rootless plant exposes shallow reception; a detached branch warns about failure to remain in Christ; a fading flower portrays the transience of wealth; and the Euphrates drying belongs to apocalyptic judgment. Xeraino is therefore vivid but not self-interpreting. Teachers must distinguish natural process, bodily condition, healing, parable, warning, and divine judgment rather than blending every use into one spiritual diagnosis.
Xeraino moves across natural withering, bodily impairment and healing, spiritual warning, human transience, and apocalyptic judgment. Each passage identifies what dries and why.
But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
In the sower parable, the plant withers because it lacks root, illustrating reception that springs up quickly but cannot endure trouble.
Once again Jesus entered the synagogue, and a man with a withered hand was there.
The withered hand names an embodied disability that becomes the setting for Jesus' compassionate restoration and conflict over Sabbath mercy.
Immediately her bleeding stopped, and she sensed in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Here the verb describes the drying up of the woman's flow of blood, a life-giving cessation rather than decay.
If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.
Jesus uses a detached, withering branch as a severe warning within the larger call to remain in Him, receive His words, love, obey, and bear fruit.
For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its flower falls and its beauty is lost. So too, the rich man will fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
James turns ordinary withering into a picture of wealth's passing beauty and the rich person's mortality.
And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the East.
In the sixth bowl vision, the river's drying is an apocalyptic act within the sequence of divine judgment.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. To dry up, wither, or waste away; often describing spiritual fruitlessness or physical deterioration in NT.
To dry up, wither, or waste away; often describing spiritual fruitlessness or physical deterioration in NT.
(ξηρός), [in LXX chiefly for יָבֵשׁ ;] to dry up, parch, wither. with accusative, τ. χόρτον, Jas.1:11; pass., to become or be dry or withered. of plants, Mat.13:6 21:19-20, Mrk.4:6 11:20-21, Luk.8:6, Jhn.15:6, 1Pe.1:24; of ripened crops, Rev.14:15; of liquids, Mrk.5:20, Rev.16:12; of members of the body, to waste away, Mrk.3:1 (cf. 3Ki.13:4) Mrk.9:18.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
Read verseI dry up, parch, ripen
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.
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.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 15 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
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)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 15 lexical occurrence verses.
ξηραίνω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Xeraino does not carry one fixed spiritual verdict. In Mark 3, a withered hand calls forth Christ's restoring mercy; in Mark 5, drying describes the welcome end of a woman's bleeding. In Matthew 13 and John 15, however, withering warns that visible life without root or continued relation to Christ cannot endure. James uses the same natural process to humble the rich, and Revelation places a dried river inside divine judgment.
The verb's power lies in its concrete picture of vitality lost, but faithful teaching must ask what is drying, what caused it, and how the passage responds. That discipline protects struggling believers from careless condemnation while preserving Jesus' severe warning that life and fruit are found only in abiding fellowship with Him.
John.15.6
Xeraino can describe becoming dry or withered and, in context, the drying up of a flow or body of water. The lexical image concerns lost moisture or vitality, but grammatical voice and the object identify whether the process is natural, disabling, healing, metaphorical, or judicial. The verb itself does not identify the moral cause.
The Old Testament repeatedly contrasts watered fruitfulness with drought and fading vegetation, using created dependence to speak about blessing, judgment, and the brevity of human glory. The New Testament retains that imagery but applies it in distinct ways: Jesus heals embodied withering, warns rootless hearers and detached branches, James humbles wealth, and Revelation portrays judgment. John 15 gives the central pastoral anchor by locating enduring life and fruit in remaining in Christ.
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