καταστρέφω
to overthrow
‘to overthrow’ is one of 2 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).
- Perfect
- A completed past action with continuing present results.
Voice
- Active
- The subject performs the action.
- 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
- Neuter
- Grammatically neuter.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one.
Every verse where G2690 appears in the Book of Matthew — 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.
Matthew
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.
“to overthrow” is the headline sense of the Greek verb καταστρεφω (katastréphō). It occurs a mere 3 verses across Scripture. More than a third of its appearances fall in Matthew. Scripture first uses it in Matthew 21:12. Catalogued under 2 senses, its meaning is not single-sense. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's G2690 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 →
- 3
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 3 distinct verses.
- 3 / 27
- NT books
- The word appears in 3 of 27 New Testament books.
- #2,203
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Greek words (rank 2,203 of 5,347 Greek words by occurrence).
View all 3 occurrences in the concordance →
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 3 distinct verses.
- Gospels 2 verses · 67%
- Lukan (Luke–Acts) 1 verse · 33%
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: Overthrew 2×
- American Standard Version: Overthrew 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: He overturned 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: He overturned 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders G2690 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders G2690 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders G2690 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders G2690 across 3 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in Thayer's
The 2 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.
- the soil with a plough
- to overturn, overthrow, throw down
Word origin
Derived from κατα (katá) (G2596) — down.
Forms in the corpus
The 2 distinct written forms G2690 takes in the Greek New Testament, most frequent first — each parse links to that tense’s occurrences in the concordance.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| κατέστρεψεν katéstrepsen | Verb, Aorist, Active, Indicative, 3rd person, Singular | Matthew 21:12 | 2 |
| κατεστραμμένα katestramména | Verb, Perfect, Passive, Participle, Accusative, Plural, Neuter | Acts 15:16 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other Thayer's entries built from the same root as G2690, 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
- καθα kathá G2505 according as
- καθαιρεω kathairéō G2507 to tear down
- καθαπτω katháptō G2510 to fasten down
- καθεδρα kathédra G2515 seat
- καθεζομαι kathézomai G2516 to sit down
- καθεξης kathexēs G2517 in order
- καθευδω katheúdō G2518 to fall asleep
- καθηγητης kathēgētḗs G2519 guide
- καθηκω kathḗkō G2520 to come down
- καθημαι káthēmai G2521 to sit down
- καθημερινος kathēmerinós G2522 daily
- καθιημι kathíēmi G2524 to send down
- καθιστημι kathístēmi G2525 to place
- καθο kathó G2526 according to what
- καθολου kathólou G2527 wholly
- καθοπλιζω kathoplízō G2528 to arm
- καθοραω kathoráō G2529 to see clearly
- καθοτι kathóti G2530 according to what
- καθως kathṓs G2531 according as
- καμμυω kammýō G2576 to close eyes
- καταβαινω katabaínō G2597 to descend
- καταβαλλω katabállō G2598 to cast down
- καταβαρεω katabaréō G2599 to weigh down
- καταβιβαζω katabibázō G2601 to bring down
+103 more words share this root (not shown).
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 130 — not the complete family. They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint usage
The same Greek word καταστρεφω appears 31 times in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), across 27 verses in 15 books.
- 31
- LXX occurrences
- Tagged occurrences of this Greek word in the Septuagint.
- 27
- verses
- Distinct Septuagint verses containing this word.
- 15 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 15 of the 39 Old Testament books.
Sample Septuagint occurrences
- Genesis 13:10 καταστρέφω
- Deuteronomy 29:22 καταστρέφω
- Judges 8:17 καταστρέφω
- 2 Kings 21:13 καταστρέφω
- Ezra 6:12 καταστρέφω
- Job 9:5 καταστρέφω
- Psalms 88:40 καταστρέφω
- Isaiah 1:7 καταστρέφω
- Jeremiah 20:16 καταστρέφω
- Lamentations 4:6 καταστρέφω
- Daniel 11:8 καταστρέφω
- Amos 4:11 καταστρέφω
Septuagint occurrences (same lexeme)
Every verse where the same Strong’s number (G2690) 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 13:10 καταστρέφω Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.
- Genesis 19:21 καταστρέφω He said to him, "Behold, I have granted your request concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.
- Genesis 19:25 καταστρέφω He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.
- Genesis 19:29 καταστρέφω It happened, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
- Deuteronomy 29:22 καταστρέφω The generation to come, your children who shall rise up after you, and the foreigner who shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick;
- Judges 8:17 καταστρέφω He broke down the tower of Penuel, and killed the men of the city.
- 2 Kings 21:13 καταστρέφω I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.
- Ezra 6:12 καταστρέφω and the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who shall put forth their hand to alter [the same], to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with all diligence.
- Job 9:5 καταστρέφω Who removes the mountains, and they don't know it, When he overturns them in his anger
- Job 11:10 καταστρέφω If he passes by, or confines, Or convenes a court, then who can oppose him?
- Job 12:15 καταστρέφω Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up; Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
- Job 12:19 καταστρέφω He leads priests away stripped, And overthrows the mighty.
- Job 18:4 καταστρέφω You who tear yourself in your anger, Shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?
- Job 24:22 καταστρέφω Yet God preserves the mighty by his power. He rises up who has no assurance of life.
- Job 28:9 καταστρέφω He puts forth his hand on the flinty rock, And he overturns the mountains by the roots.
- Psalms 88:40 καταστρέφω
- Isaiah 1:7 καταστρέφω 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 13:19 καταστρέφω Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Jeremiah 20:16 καταστρέφω Let that man be as the cities which Yahweh overthrew, and didn't repent: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontime;
- Jeremiah 27:40 καταστρέφω
- Jeremiah 30:12 καταστρέφω For thus says Yahweh, Your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous.
- Lamentations 4:6 καταστρέφω For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her.
- Daniel 11:8 καταστρέφω Also their gods, with their molten images, [and] with their goodly vessels of silver and of gold, shall he carry captive into Egypt; and he shall refrain some years from the king of the north.
- Amos 4:11 καταστρέφω "I have overthrown some of you, As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, And you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; Yet you haven't returned to me," says Yahweh.
- Jonah 3:4 καταστρέφω Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried out, and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!"
- Haggai 2:22 καταστρέφω I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots, and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother.
- Malachi 1:4 καταστρέφω Whereas Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;" thus says Yahweh of Hosts, "They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them 'The Wicked Land,' even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever."
These are occurrences of the same Greek lexeme (G2690) 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.
