Properly, to be burly , i.e. (figuratively) powerful (passively, impregnable ); by implication, to ravage
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 verb shadad describes ravaging, devastating, ruining, or violently destroying. Prophets use it for cities, fields, harvests, homes, fortresses, and whole communities overwhelmed by war or judgment.
Reader summary
Full entry for שָׁדַד (H7703) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew verb shadad describes ravaging, devastating, ruining, or violently destroying. Prophets use it for cities, fields, harvests, homes, fortresses, and whole communities overwhelmed by war or judgment.
The BSB source-word alignment has 57 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the destroyer (6), has been destroyed (3), is destroyed (3), the destroyers (3), a destroyer (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Judges 5:27. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (26), Isaiah (11), Proverbs (3), Zechariah (3).
The Hebrew verb shadad describes ravaging, devastating, ruining, or violently destroying. Prophets use it for cities, fields, harvests, homes, fortresses, and whole communities overwhelmed by war or judgment. The same word can identify a destroyer, announce that a destroyer will in turn be destroyed, or voice the grief of people whose dwellings are gone. Isaiah calls for fugitives to receive refuge from the destroyer, Jeremiah summons bitter mourning, Joel says the land itself mourns, and Proverbs forbids attacking the righteous person's home.
This vocabulary should expose destructive power rather than make it exciting. A prophetic judgment oracle does not authorize hearers to become the destroying agent, and a devastated population must not be reduced to a moral illustration. The passages preserve refugees, widows, mothers, farmers, worshipers, and mourners among those affected. Responsible teaching identifies who destroys, what is lost, how the text evaluates the act, and where lament, refuge, restraint, repentance, or accountability appears.
Modern claims about war or disaster require evidence and must not be presented as direct fulfillment merely because the same destructive imagery feels familiar.
Shadad names forceful devastation and can describe the destroyer, the act of ravaging, or the ruined condition that follows. Agent, victim, object, and oracle setting distinguish invasion, predation, judgment, harvest loss, lament, refuge, and moral prohibition.
Let my fugitives stay with you; be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.” When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased, and the oppressors have vanished from the land,
Isaiah calls for Moab's fugitives to receive refuge until the destroyer and oppressor disappear.
Woe to you, O destroyer never destroyed, O traitor never betrayed! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed. When you have finished betraying, you will be betrayed.
The oracle pronounces woe on a treacherous destroyer who will eventually experience destruction and betrayal.
O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.
Jeremiah summons bitter mourning like grief for an only son because the destroyer comes suddenly.
My tent is destroyed, and all its ropes are snapped. My sons have departed from me and are no more. I have no one left to pitch my tent or set up my curtains.
The speaker laments a destroyed tent, snapped ropes, departed children, and the absence of anyone to rebuild.
The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.
Ruined fields, destroyed grain, failed oil, and dried wine cause the land itself to mourn.
Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, near the dwelling of the righteous; do not destroy his resting place.
Wisdom directly forbids a wicked person from lying in wait or destroying the righteous person's home.
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. Physical strength becomes destructive force; violent domination through overwhelming power, often with covenant-breaking plunder
Physical strength becomes destructive force; violent domination through overwhelming power, often with covenant-breaking plunder
properly, to be burly, i.e. (figuratively) powerful (passively, impregnable); by implication, to ravage BDB: deal violently with Usage: dead, destroy(-er), oppress, robber, spoil(-er), × utterly, (lay) waste.
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 58 lexical occurrence verses.
שָׁדַד is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Treachery ultimately leads to personal ruin.Proverbs 11:3
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Shadad lets prophetic language name devastation without hiding its human cost. Isaiah 16 places Moabite fugitives before Judah with a call to shelter them from the destroyer until oppression ends. The passage prevents judgment speech from becoming indifference to displaced neighbors. Isaiah 33 addresses a destroyer who has escaped destruction and announces that predatory betrayal will not remain beyond accountability.
That reversal belongs to divine judgment, not a private mandate for revenge. Jeremiah 6 compares the coming grief to mourning an only son, refusing to make catastrophe abstract. Jeremiah 10 lets the speaker describe a torn tent, lost children, and no one left to rebuild, so teachers should not move too quickly from ruins to lessons. Joel 1 joins crop failure to the land's mourning and communal lament.
The text does not authorize a confident diagnosis of a modern drought or farmer's loss. Proverbs 24 directly forbids lying in wait against the righteous dwelling, making predatory intent morally clear. Faithful application shelters people fleeing violence, documents losses truthfully, supports families and livelihoods, rejects opportunistic attack, and entrusts final retribution to God while pursuing lawful accountability and repair.
Isa.16.4
Shadad transliterates Hebrew שָׁדַד. Its verbal forms can describe ravaging, being devastated, or a named destroyer, while the object may be a city, field, harvest, household, nation, or person; voice and syntax locate agency and loss.
New Testament teaching calls disciples to shelter vulnerable people, refuse personal vengeance, expose destructive works, and await God's just judgment through different Greek vocabulary. Those themes may guide application, but they do not make any modern conflict an automatic fulfillment of a prophetic oracle.