הָרַס
to tear down
‘to tear down’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘throw down’
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H2040 appears in the Book of Psalms — 3 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew 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 Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Psalms
- Psalms 11:3 יֵֽהָרֵס֑וּ/ן Niphal impf 3mp + sfx n If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
- Psalms 28:5 יֶ֝הֶרְסֵ֗/ם Qal impf 3ms + sfx pers 3mp Because they don't regard the works of Yahweh, Nor the operation of his hands, He will break them down and not build them up.
- Psalms 58:6 הֲרָס Qal impv 2ms Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.
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.
הרס (hâraç) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to tear down.” It first appears in Exodus 15:7. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 42 verses — moderately common. As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 3 stems (Qal, Niphal, and more). Sharing its root, it stands alongside הריסה, הריסות and הרס. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2040 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 42
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 42 distinct verses.
- 16 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 16 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #837
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 837 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 42 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 42 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 27 verses · 64%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 11 verses · 26%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 4 verses · 10%
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: Throw down 4×, Thrown down 3×, Destroyed 2×
- American Standard Version: Overthrow 4×, Thrown down 3×, He hath thrown down 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Tear down 3×, Are torn down 2×, Break through 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: He has torn down 2×, I will tear down 2×, Tears it down 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2040 across 43 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 26 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 H2040 across 43 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 32 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 H2040 across 42 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 27 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2040 across 42 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 34 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each.
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 6 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
Qal
- Pf. הָ׳ La 2:2, 17; הָרָ֑ס Is 14:17; וְהָרַסְתָּ֫ Ju 6:25 וְהָרַסְתִּ֫י Ez 13:14 Mi 5:10; וְהָֽרְסוּ Ez 16:39; 26:4, 12 הָרָ֑סוּ 1 K 19:10, 14; Impf. יַהֲרוֹס Jb 12:14; sf. יֶהֶרְסֶ֑ךָ Is 22:19; וַיֶּהֶרְסֶ֑הָ 1 Ch 20:1; יֶהֶרְסֶנָּה Pr 29:4 יֶהֶרְסֵם ψ 28:5; 3 fs. sf. 3 ms. תֶּהֶרְסֶנּוּ Pr 14:1; 2 ms. תַּהֲרֹס Ex 15:7; אֶהֱרֹם Je 24:6; 42:10 אֶהֱרוֹס Mal 1:4; 3 mpl. יֶהֶרְסוּ Ex 19:21, 24; יַהֲרֹ֑סוּ 2 K 3:25; Imv. הֲרָס־ ψ 58:7; sf. הָרְסָהּ 2 S 11:25; Inf. הֲרֹס Je 31:28, הֲרוֹס Je 1:10; Pt. act. הֹרֵס Je 45:4; pass. הָרוּס 1 K 18:30;— e.g. Lamentations 2:2
- 1. throw down, tear down, c. acc.: altar(s) Ju 6:25 1 K 18:30; 19:10, 14; height (גַּב, where idol-altar stood? cf. גַּב sub גבב) Ez 16:39; city (cities) Is 14:17 2 S 11:25 2 K 3:25 1 Ch 20:1 (cf. MI27) Mal 1:4 (obj. not expr.); wall(s) Ez 13:14; 26:12; house Pr 14:1 (fig. of foolish woman’s action); strongholds (מִבְצָרִים) La 2:2 Mi 5:10; tower(s) Ez 26:4; fig. overthrow (i.e. ruin) land Pr 29:4 (opp. יַעֲמִיד); obj. men Ex 15:7 (poem in E) Is 22:19 (cast down Shebna from office); fig., opp. building up, of Yahweh’s dealings with men ψ 28:5, cf. (without obj.) Je 24:6; 42:10; obj. indef. אשׁר בָּנִיתִי אֲנִי הֹרֵס Je 45:4; abs. Je 1:10; 31:28 La 2:17 Jb 12:14. e.g. Judges 6:25
- 2. break down, break away ה׳ שִׁנֵּימוֹ בְּפִימוֹ ψ 58:7 break away their teeth in their mouth! fig., addressed to God. e.g. Psalms 58:7
- 3. break through, intr., sq. אֶל־י׳ Ex 19:21; sq. לַעֲלֹת אֶל־י׳ v 24 (both J). e.g. Exodus 19:21
Niphal
- Pf. 3 fs. נֶהֱרָ֑סָה Pr 24:31; 3 pl. נֶהֶרְסוּ Je 50:15 Jo 1:17; וְנֶהֶרְסוּ consec. Ez 30:4; 38:20; Impf. יֵהָרֵס Je 31:40; 3 fs. תֵּהָרֵס Pr 11:11; יֵהָרֵס֑וּן ψ 11:3; Pt. הַנֶּהֱרָסוֹת Ez 36:35, 36;—be thrown or torn down; stones of wall Pr 24:31; wall of city Je 50:15; cities Ez 36:35 cf. v 36; fig. ruined Pr 11:11 (opp. תָּרוּם); foundations, יְסוֹדֹת Ez 30:4; שָׁתוֹת ψ 11:3; mountains Ez 38:20; storehouses מַמְּגֻרוֹת Jo 1:17 [v. מ׳]; valley E. of Jerus. לֹא־יִנָּתֵשׁ וְלֹא־יֵהָרֵס Je 31:40 it shall not be plucked up nor thrown down, appar. proverb. expression, implying destruction, removal. e.g. Proverbs 24:31
Piel
- Impf. 2 ms. sf. תְּהָֽרְסֵם Ex 23:24; Inf. abs. הָרֵס Ex 23:24; Pt. pl. sf. מְהָֽרְסַיִךְ Is 49:17;—over-throw, tear down הָרֵס תְּהָֽרְסֵם Ex 23:24 thou shalt utterly tear them down (JE; obj. = idols cf. Di); pt. destroyers, of Zion Is 49:17 (‖ מַחֲרִיבַיִךְ). e.g. Exodus 23:24
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
vb. throw down, break or tear down (MI הרס;? Arabic هَرَسَ, bruise, bray, pound, crush (grain))—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
הָרַס
- (b. h.)
- 1. to break, to destroy, demolish. Midr. Till. to Ps. IX, 7 הוא הוֹרֵס את וכ׳ He destroys your plans; Yalk. Mal. 587.—Part. pass. הָרוּס; f. הֲרוּסָה. Gen. R. s. 45; a. e.—Y. Ber. IV, 8ᵃ; a. e.
- 2. to break through, rush. Yalk. Ex. 284 (expl. פן יהרסו, Ex. XIX, 21) שמא ידחקו, v. דָּחַק; Mekh. Yithro, Baḥod., s. 4. e.g. Exodus 19:21
הֶרֶס
- (preced.) destruction. Men. 110ᵃ (interpret. עִיר הַהֶרֶס, Is. XIX, 18) קרתא … דעתידא למיחרב (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l.) the town of Beth Shemesh which is doomed to destruction; v. חֶרֶס. e.g. Isaiah 19:18
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 39 distinct written forms H2040 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2040, 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.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 41 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 42 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Exodus 15:7
- Judges 6:25
- 2 Samuel 11:25
- 1 Kings 18:30
- 2 Kings 3:25
- 1 Chronicles 20:1
- Job 12:14
- Psalms 11:3
- Proverbs 11:11
- Isaiah 14:17
- Jeremiah 1:10
- Lamentations 2:2
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
