Words the Bible translates as desolation
English uses one word here. The Bible uses 11 words, and they do not mean the same thing. Each is listed with what it actually means, most frequent first.
- shemamahשְׁמָמָהdesolation: a land emptied of life and left a ruin, and the appalled horror that ruin provokes
- ḥorbahחׇרְבָּהa ruin: a place laid waste, or the state of being laid waste
- shammahשַׁמָּהa horrifying devastation: a place laid waste and abandoned, and the shudder of dread it provokes
- erēmōsisἐρήμωσιςthe laying waste of a place, and the ruined emptiness that laying it waste leaves behind
- ḥorevחֹרֶבdryness at its harshest: the scorching heat of the sun, the drought of withheld rain, or a place dried up into ruin
- sho'ahשׁוֹאָהsudden, sweeping ruin: catastrophe that overwhelms a person or a place without warning, and the emptied waste it leaves behind.
- meshammahמְשַׁמָּהwasteland: ground wrecked and emptied until nothing lives on it, and the horror of the people who look at it
- bohuבֹּהוּvoid: sheer emptiness, a land with nothing and no one in it; the word never stands alone, but only rhymed with its twin in the phrase rendered "formless and empty"
- mesho'ahמְשׁוֹאָהdesolationnot studied yet
- mashshu'ahמַשּׁוּאָהdesolationnot studied yet
- azuvahעֲזוּבָהdesolationnot studied yet
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Every English meaning beginning with D is on its letter page, and the whole index starts at Browse.