A (sudden) alarm (properly, the object feared, by implication, the feeling)
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
The Hebrew noun pachad can name fear, dread, terror, alarm, the feared object, or reverent awe. Jacob calls God the Fear of Isaac in an oath setting, judges are told to act with the fear of the Lord because He shows no injustice, Job names the thing he feared, psalmists ask protection from an enemy's dread, and wisdom contrasts sudden terror with secure listening.
Reader summary
Full entry for פַּחַד (H6343) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun pachad can name fear, dread, terror, alarm, the feared object, or reverent awe. Jacob calls God the Fear of Isaac in an oath setting, judges are told to act with the fear of the Lord because He shows no injustice, Job names the thing he feared, psalmists ask protection from an enemy's dread, and wisdom contrasts sudden terror with secure.
The BSB source-word alignment has 49 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the terror (5), Terror (3), the fear (3), and the Fear (2), fear (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 31:42. Its strongest book concentrations include Job (10), Psalms (9), Isaiah (5), 2 Chronicles (4).
The Hebrew noun pachad can name fear, dread, terror, alarm, the feared object, or reverent awe. Jacob calls God the Fear of Isaac in an oath setting, judges are told to act with the fear of the Lord because He shows no injustice, Job names the thing he feared, psalmists ask protection from an enemy's dread, and wisdom contrasts sudden terror with secure listening.
Other passages describe wartime panic, judgment, social dread, and frightening sights. These uses should not all be treated as one spiritual emotion. Reverent awe before the just God differs from terror produced by violence, chronic anxiety, or an aggressor's threat. A biblical report that fear fell on a population does not authorize leaders to cultivate terror in order to gain unity.
Job's feared loss should not be turned into a rule that anxious thoughts cause catastrophe. Psalm 64 makes dread a subject of prayer, showing that fear can be brought honestly before God. Responsible teaching identifies the object, source, duration, bodily effect, and moral setting of fear, then responds with reverence, refuge, truth, treatment, justice, or practical protection as appropriate.
Pachad names fear as an experience, feared object, sudden alarm, social dread, or reverent awe. Possessor, source, object, and genre distinguish worshipful fear, coercive terror, anticipatory anxiety, enemy threat, judgment, and promised security.
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”
Jacob invokes the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac while testifying that God saw his affliction.
And now, may the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for with the Lord our God there is no injustice or partiality or bribery.”
Jehoshaphat charges judges to fear the Lord because God shows no injustice, partiality, or bribery.
In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see.
The covenant-warning scene portrays unrelenting dread and terrifying sights from morning through evening.
For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me.
Job laments that the event he feared and dreaded has now overtaken him.
Hear, O God, my voice of complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy.
The psalmist asks God to hear his complaint and preserve his life from dread of the enemy.
But whoever listens to me will dwell in safety, secure from the fear of evil.”
Wisdom promises secure dwelling free from the fear of evil to the one who listens.
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. Moves from the object that provokes fear to the emotional response itself; emphasizes sudden, visceral alarm.
Moves from the object that provokes fear to the emotional response itself; emphasizes sudden, visceral alarm.
a (sudden) alarm (properly, the object feared, by implication, the feeling) BDB: dread Usage: dread(-ful), fear, (thing) great (fear, -ly feared), terror.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 49 lexical occurrence verses.
פַּחַד is built from this root:
The term conveys the inescapable intensity of judgment.Isaiah 24:16b-23
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Pachad keeps fear morally and pastorally differentiated. Genesis 31 uses the unusual title the Fear of Isaac as Jacob appeals to the God who saw his affliction and protected his labor from Laban's exploitation. The title should be handled as part of Jacob's oath, not turned into a technique for invoking terror. Second Chronicles 19 directs judges to fear the Lord precisely because divine justice contains no injustice, partiality, or bribery.
Reverence here restrains power and produces careful conduct. Deuteronomy 28 portrays sustained dread within covenant curses, not a diagnosis that every anxious person is cursed. Job 3 names a feared catastrophe that has arrived, yet the book does not say Job caused it by fearing. Psalm 64 asks preservation from dread of an enemy, validating prayer and practical concern under threat.
Proverbs 1 promises security to the one who listens to wisdom, but wisdom elsewhere still calls for prudent action. Faithful application distinguishes immediate danger from remembered or anticipated danger, protects people from coercive threats, encourages fair decisions, makes room for lament, and welcomes clinical care when fear becomes persistent or disabling.
2Chr.19.7
Pachad transliterates Hebrew פַּחַד. As a noun it can denote the feeling of fear, its object, a sudden alarm, social terror, or awe; possessive constructions and prepositions show whose fear or what feared reality is in view.
New Testament writers distinguish reverent fear, ordinary alarm, oppressive fear, and confidence in God through several Greek terms. Those texts may illuminate the moral fruit of fear, but they should not be used to flatten every pachad occurrence or cancel needed safety and treatment.