Dictionary entry

Break

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

brak: shabhar = "break" (down, off, in pieces, up), "destroy," "quench" (Isa 14:25;Jer 19:10,11;Eze 4:16;Am 1:5); paraq = "to break off" or "craunch"; figuratively "to deliver" (Ge 27:40the King James Version); `araph = "to break the neck," hence, "to destroy" (Ex 13:13); harac = "to break through" (Ex 19:21,24); parats = "to break" (forth, away), occurs inEx 19:22,24;1Sa 25:10; "breaking faith,"Ho 4:2; parach = "to break forth as a bud" (Le 13:12); nathats or nathaq = "destroy" (Eze 23:34the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "gnaw"; seeBREAST); chalal = "profane," "defile," "stain" (Nu 30:2;Ps 89:31,34); baqa = "rip open" (2Ki 3:26;Isa 58:8); ra`a` = "to spoil by breaking to pieces," "to make good for nothing" (Job 34:24;Ps 2:9;Jer 15:12, the King James Version "Shall iron break northern iron?"); patsach = "to break out" (in joyful sound), "break forth," "make a noise" (Isa 14:7, the nations rejoice in the peace which follows the fall of the oppressor); nir = "to glisten," "gleam" (as of a fresh furrow) (Jer 4:3;Ho 10:12); pathach = "to open wide," "loosen," "have vent" (Jer 1:14); naphats = "to dash to pieces or scatter," "overspread," "scatter" (Jer 48:12, the work usually done carefully shall be done roughly;Jer 51:20-23, descriptive of the terrible fate appointed for Babylon); na'aph = "to break wedlock" (Eze 16:38); tsalach or tsaleach = "break out," "come mightily" (Am 5:6). The New Testament employs luo = "to loosen," "dissolve" (Mt 5:19); diorusso = "to penetrate burglariously," "break through" (Mt 6:19,20, Greek "dig through"); rhegnumi or rhesso = "to disrupt," "burst," "to utter with a loud voice" (Ga 4:27); klao = "to break" (Ac 20:7, "to break bread," i.e. to celebrate the Lord's Supper;1Co 10:16).

See alsoBREACH.

Frank E. Hirsch