To pull down or in pieces, break , destroy
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The Hebrew verb haras describes demolishing, tearing down, overthrowing, or ruining what has been built or established. It can refer to an altar, city, wall, house, institution, field, or figurative social order.
Reader summary
Full entry for הָרַס (H2040) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb haras describes demolishing, tearing down, overthrowing, or ruining what has been built or established. It can refer to an altar, city, wall, house, institution, field, or figurative social order.
The BSB source-word alignment has 43 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and destroyed (2), are torn down (2), torn down (2), will demolish (2), . . . (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 15:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (8), Jeremiah (7), Exodus (5), Proverbs (4).
The Hebrew verb haras describes demolishing, tearing down, overthrowing, or ruining what has been built or established. It can refer to an altar, city, wall, house, institution, field, or figurative social order. Elijah repairs an altar of the Lord that had been torn down, David coldly tells Joab to intensify an attack and demolish a city after arranging Uriah's death, prophets contrast destroyers with returning builders, and wisdom says a household can be built or torn down by human conduct.
Jeremiah repeatedly places tearing down beside building and planting, showing that demolition is not the whole theological horizon. The word does not bless every removal project. A leader may use ordinary military language to conceal grave wrongdoing, as David does, and a proverb about a woman tearing down her house must not be used to blame a wife for abuse, poverty, illness, or another person's sin.
Responsible teaching distinguishes physical destruction from moral or social ruin, examines authority and motive, identifies who bears the loss, and looks for repair, justice, repentance, and protection.
Haras denotes the dismantling or ruin of physical, political, cultic, household, or figurative structures. Agent, object, motive, and literary evaluation distinguish holy boundary enforcement, criminal concealment, invasion, false security, institutional damage, judgment, and rebuilding.
Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people approached him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down.
Elijah repairs the Lord's altar that had previously been torn down before preparing the sacrifice.
Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”
David tells Joab to strengthen the attack and demolish the city while concealing his responsibility for Uriah's death.
Your builders hasten back; your destroyers and wreckers depart from you.
Zion's returning builders hurry back while the destroyers and wreckers depart from her.
I will keep My eyes on them for good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them.
The Lord promises to return the exiles, build them up rather than tear them down, and plant them.
Every wise woman builds her house, but a foolish one tears it down with her own hands.
Wisdom contrasts a woman who builds her household with foolish conduct that tears it down.
By justice a king brings stability to the land, but a man who exacts tribute demolishes it.
Justice stabilizes a land, while a ruler's oppressive extraction tears it down.
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.
Hebrew word. Destruction through violent dismantling, often structural ruin; God's judgment tool against buildings, altars, and idolatrous systems.
Destruction through violent dismantling, often structural ruin; God's judgment tool against buildings, altars, and idolatrous systems.
to pull down or in pieces, break, destroy BDB: throw down Usage: beat down, break (down, through), destroy, overthrow, pluck down, pull down, ruin, throw down, × utterly.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 43 lexical occurrence verses.
הָרַס is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Wicked speech has the power to destabilize and destroy communities.Proverbs 11:11
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Haras can expose the moral life of structures. First Kings 18 shows Elijah repairing a torn altar before the Lord answers, locating restoration within covenant confrontation rather than treating ruins as permanent. Second Samuel 11 uses demolition in David's message to Joab after the king has arranged Uriah's death. David makes the sword sound impersonal and calls the commander to press the siege, but the chapter later states that what David did displeased the Lord.
Institutional language cannot erase personal responsibility. Isaiah 49 reverses the scene as builders hasten and destroyers leave Zion. Jeremiah 24 promises returned exiles that the Lord will build and plant rather than tear down, giving displaced people a future without denying the catastrophe they have survived. Proverbs 14 speaks of wise and foolish household formation; it addresses agency but does not make one woman responsible for another person's violence or for every condition outside her control.
Proverbs 29 names unjust tribute as socially demolishing while justice stabilizes the land. Faithful application repairs neglected worship and community life, exposes euphemisms that hide harm, protects those burdened by institutions, practices transparent stewardship, and joins rebuilding to truth, restitution, participation, and accountable authority.
2Sam.11.25
Haras transliterates Hebrew הָרַס. It can take concrete objects such as altars, cities, walls, and storehouses or describe the undoing of an office, household, or land; parallel verbs and contrasts with building clarify scale and moral direction.
New Testament texts describe Christ building His assembly, leaders building others up, and destructive teaching or conduct damaging a community through different Greek words. Those themes support accountable repair, but they do not permit teachers to equate their institution with Zion or avoid scrutiny.