ἐρημόω
to lay waste
‘to lay waste’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Thayer's Greek Lexicon
From Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Tense
- Aorist
- Action viewed as a simple whole, without regard to duration — often past (perfective aspect).
- Present
- Ongoing or general action in present time (imperfective aspect).
- Perfect
- A completed past action with continuing present results.
Voice
- Passive
- The subject receives the action.
Mood
- Indicative
- States a fact or asks a factual question (the mood of reality).
- Participle
- A verbal adjective (“writing,” “having written”).
Case
- Accusative
- The case of the direct object and of extent.
Person
- 3rd person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where G2049 appears in the Book of Luke — 1 distinct verse. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Greek form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Greek New Testament; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences of this word are not indexed here.
Luke
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
The Greek verb ερημοω centers on the idea of “to lay waste.” It occurs a mere 5 verses across Scripture. Revelation dominates its distribution — 3 of 5 verses. Its earliest occurrence is Matthew 12:25. Thayer's distinguishes 3 senses for it. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G2049 catalogs a Greek word from the Greek New Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Greek New Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 5
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 5 distinct verses.
- 3 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 3 of 27 New Testament books.
- #1,648
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Greek words (rank 1,648 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 5 occurrences in the concordance →
Most concentrated in
- Revelation 3 verses 60%
- Matthew 1 verse 20%
- Luke 1 verse 20%
By section of the New Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Some books belong to more than one corpus (Luke is in both the Gospels and the Lukan corpus, and so on), so these shares overlap and need not total 100%. Each figure is a share of the word’s 5 distinct verses.
- Johannine 3 verses · 60%
- Revelation 3 verses · 60%
- Gospels 2 verses · 40%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 1 verse · 20%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Is brought to desolation 2×
- American Standard Version: Is brought to desolation 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Will be laid waste 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Is made desolate 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G2049 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G2049 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G2049 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G2049 across 5 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 3 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in Thayer's
The 3 senses Thayer's distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- to make desolate, lay waste
- to ruin, bring to desolation
- to despoil one, strip her of her treasures
Word origin
Derived from ερημος (érēmos) (G2048) — desolate.
From G2048 ; to lay waste (literally or figuratively): - (bring to make) desolate (-ion) come to nought.
— Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (1890), public domain.
Forms in the corpus
The 3 distinct written forms G2049 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that tense’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| ἐρημοῦται erēmoûtai | Verb, Present, Passive, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | Matthew 12:25 | 2 |
| ἠρημώθη ērēmṓthē | Verb, Aorist, Passive, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | Revelation 18:16 | 2 |
| ἠρημωμένην ērēmōménēn | Verb, Perfect, Passive, Participle, Accusative, Singular, Feminine | Revelation 17:16 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G2049, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word ερημοω appears 52 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 48 verses in 12 books.
- 52
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 48
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 12 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 12 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 47:19 ἐρημόω
- Leviticus 26:22 ἐρημόω
- Judges 16:24 ἐρημόω
- 2 Kings 19:17 ἐρημόω
- Ezra 4:15 ἐρημόω
- Job 14:11 ἐρημόω
- Psalms 68:26 ἐρημόω
- Isaiah 1:7 ἐρημόω
- Jeremiah 3:2 ἐρημόω
- Ezekiel 26:2 ἐρημόω
- Daniel 8:11 ἐρημόω
- Amos 3:11 ἐρημόω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G2049) appears in the Greek Septuagint. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context; the Greek form is the matched word — the English is not keyword-highlighted.
- Genesis 47:19 ἐρημόω Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants to Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land won't be desolate."
- Leviticus 26:22 ἐρημόω I will send the wild animals among you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your roads will become desolate.
- Leviticus 26:30 ἐρημόω I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.
- Leviticus 26:43 ἐρημόω The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them: and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
- Judges 16:24 ἐρημόω When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god has delivered into our hand our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us.
- 2 Kings 19:17 ἐρημόω Of a truth, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,
- Ezra 4:15 ἐρημόω that search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers: so shall you find in the book of the records, and know that this city is a rebellious city, and hurtful to kings and provinces, and that they have moved sedition within the same of old time; for which cause was this city laid waste.
- Ezra 12:3 ἐρημόω
- Job 14:11 ἐρημόω As the waters fail from the sea, And the river wastes and dries up,
- Psalms 68:26 ἐρημόω "Bless God in the congregations, Even the Lord in the assembly of Israel!"
- Psalms 78:7 ἐρημόω That they might set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep his commandments,
- Isaiah 1:7 ἐρημόω Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire. Strangers devour your land in your presence, And it is desolate, As overthrown by strangers.
- Isaiah 6:11 ἐρημόω Then I said, "Lord, how long?" He answered, "Until cities are waste without inhabitant, And houses without man, And the land becomes utterly waste,
- Isaiah 11:15 ἐρημόω Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind will he wave his hand over the River, and will strike it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals.
- Isaiah 23:13 ἐρημόω Behold, the land of the Chaldeans: this people was not; the Assyrian founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness; they set up their towers; they overthrew the palaces of it; they made it a ruin.
- Isaiah 24:1 ἐρημόω Behold, Yahweh makes the earth empty, and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants of it.
- Isaiah 24:10 ἐρημόω The waste city is broken down; every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
- Isaiah 33:8 ἐρημόω The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases: [the enemy] has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he doesn't regard man.
- Isaiah 34:10 ἐρημόω It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke of it shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.
- Isaiah 37:18 ἐρημόω Of a truth, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the countries, and their land,
- Isaiah 37:25 ἐρημόω I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt.
- Isaiah 44:27 ἐρημόω who says to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers;
- Isaiah 49:17 ἐρημόω Your children make haste; your destroyers and those who made you waste shall go forth from you.
- Isaiah 51:10 ἐρημόω Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
- Isaiah 54:3 ἐρημόω For you shall spread aboard on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
- Isaiah 60:12 ἐρημόω For that nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yes, those nations shall be utterly wasted.
- Jeremiah 3:2 ἐρημόω Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
- Jeremiah 10:25 ἐρημόω Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you, and on the families that don't call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
- Jeremiah 28:36 ἐρημόω
- Jeremiah 33:9 ἐρημόω [This city] shall be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and for a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do to them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that I procure to it.
- Jeremiah 40:10 ἐρημόω As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah, to stand before the Chaldeans who shall come to us: but you, gather you wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken.
- Ezekiel 26:2 ἐρημόω Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken: the gate of the peoples; she is turned to me; I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste:
- Ezekiel 26:19 ἐρημόω For thus says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall make you a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep on you, and the great waters shall cover you;
- Ezekiel 29:12 ἐρημόω I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.
- Ezekiel 30:7 ἐρημόω They shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted.
- Ezekiel 32:15 ἐρημόω When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that of which it was full, when I shall strike all those who dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 33:24 ἐρημόω Son of man, they who inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.
- Ezekiel 33:27 ἐρημόω Thus shall you tell them, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him who is in the open field will I give to the animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.
- Ezekiel 33:28 ἐρημόω I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.
- Ezekiel 33:29 ἐρημόω Then shall they know that I am Yahweh, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed.
- Ezekiel 35:3 ἐρημόω and tell it, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment.
- Ezekiel 35:7 ἐρημόω Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns.
- Ezekiel 36:10 ἐρημόω and I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited, and the waste places shall be built;
- Ezekiel 38:12 ἐρημόω to take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn your hand against the waste places that are [now] inhabited, and against the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten cattle and goods, who dwell in the middle of the earth.
- Daniel 8:11 ἐρημόω Yes, it magnified itself, even to the prince of the host; and it took away from him the continual [burnt offering], and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
- Daniel 8:13 ἐρημόω Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who spoke, How long shall be the vision [concerning] the continual [burnt-offering], and the disobedience that makes desolate, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
- Daniel 11:24 ἐρημόω In time of security shall he come even on the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them prey, and spoil, and substance: yes, he shall devise his devices against the strongholds, even for a time.
- Amos 3:11 ἐρημόω Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: "An adversary will overrun the land; And he will pull down your strongholds, And your fortresses will be plundered."
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G2049) in the Septuagint — not a translation of any one Hebrew word. The store carries no word-level Hebrew↔Greek alignment, so no Hebrew original is asserted here. Counts come from the recovered LXX Strong's tagging — high-frequency vocabulary is well covered, while rare or late forms may be untagged — so they reflect tagged occurrences and may slightly undercount.
