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חָתַת

to be dismayed

‘to be dismayed’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓

H2865 Strong's Hebrew
châthath Transliteration
/khaw-thath'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 51 appearances

Compare with another word →

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.

חתת — transliterated châthath — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to be dismayed.” Translators differ — “be dismayed” in the King James Version, then “or discouraged” (Berean Standard Bible), as the renderings breakdown shows. With 45 verses in 13 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Jeremiah (33% of all occurrences). As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 4 stems (Qal, Niphal, and more). See the sense tree, 45-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
abolish
Modern gloss
to be dismayed
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H2865 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 →

45
distinct verses
The word appears in 45 distinct verses.
13 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 13 of 39 Old Testament books.
Deuteronomy 1:21
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Deuteronomy 1:21.
Malachi 2:5
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Malachi 2:5.
#723
by frequency
Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 723 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 45 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 2 · 4%
  • Historical 10 · 22%
  • Wisdom 4 · 9%
  • Prophets 29 · 64%

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 45 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 34 verses · 76%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 9 verses · 20%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 2 verses · 4%

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: Be dismayed 9×, Dismayed 3×, They were dismayed 3×
  • American Standard Version: Be dismayed 5×, Fear not 4×, Not 4×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Or discouraged 8×, Are dismayed 3×, Be shattered 3×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Be dismayed 16×, Do 9×, May you 3×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H2865 across 54 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Be dismayed” 9×
  • “Dismayed” 3×
  • “They were dismayed” 3×
  • “Be not dismayed” 2×
  • “Be thou dismayed” 2×
  • “Yourselves and ye shall be broken in pieces” 2×

Plus 33 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 H2865 across 54 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Be dismayed” 5×
  • “Fear not” 4×
  • “Not” 4×
  • “They were dismayed” 3×
  • “Are dismayed” 2×
  • “They shall be dismayed” 2×
  • “Yourselves” 2×

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 H2865 across 52 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Or discouraged” 8×
  • “Are dismayed” 3×
  • “Be shattered” 3×
  • “Will be shattered” 3×
  • “Be dismayed” 2×
  • “Be terrified” 2×
  • “Or dismayed” 2×

Plus 29 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 H2865 across 63 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Be dismayed” 16×
  • “Do” 9×
  • “May you” 3×
  • “Shatter” 3×
  • “And” 2×
  • “Frightened” 2×
  • “Is” 2×
  • “Let” 2×
  • “Will be dismayed” 2×
  • “You shall” 2×

Plus 20 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


11 senses and sub-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 11 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. 3 ms. חַת Je 50:2; 3 fs. חַ֫תָּה Je 14:4 + 2 times, וָחָ֑תָּה Je 48:1; 3 pl. חַ֫תּוּ Is 37:27 + 4 times, וְחַתּ֫וּ consec. Is 20:5 + 2 times, וָחָ֑תּוּ consec. Je 50:36; Impf. (Köi. 366) יֵחַת Is 7:8; 30:31, יֵחַ֑ת Jb 39:22, יֵחָ֑ת Is 31:4, אֵחַ֫תָּה Je 17:18, יֵחַ֫תּוּ 1 S 2:10 + 3 times—On יֵחַ֑תּוּ Jb 21:13 v. נָחַת;—תֵּחָ֑תּוּ Jos 10:25 + 2 times, etc.; Imv. וָחֹ֫תּוּ Is 8:9(×3);— e.g. Jeremiah 50:2
  • 1. be shattered, broken, fig. of nations under divine judgment Is 7:8; 30:31; so prob. also Is 8:9(×3) (but del. in v a), and perhaps (of י׳’s foes in gen.) 1 S 2:10 (song;—others render dismayed in all except Is 7:8); fig. of י׳’s righteousness Is 51:6 (= be abolished, annihilated); lit. of bows Je 51:56, according to Gie’s reading חַתָּה v. Pi. e.g. Isaiah 7:8
  • 2. be dismayed, usually
    • a. abs.: | יָרֵא Dt 1:21; 31:8 Jos 8:1; 10:25 (all D), 1 S 17:11 Je 23:4; 30:10; 46:27 Ez 2:6; 3:9 1 Ch 22:13; 28:20 2 Ch 20:15, 17; 32:7; ‖ בּוֹשׁ Is 20:5; 37:27 = 2 K 19:26 Je 8:9; 17:18(×2); 48:1, 20, 39; 50:2(×2) (others assign 48:20, 39; 50:2(×2) to 1); fig. of the ground הָאֲדָמָה, dismayed for lack of rain Je 14:4 (‖ בּוֹשׁ of the husband-men); in Je 14:4 read prob. with Du (after 𝔊) Co Dr וְעֹבְדֵי הא׳ חַתּוּ. ‖ערץ Jos 1:9 no ‖ Je 50:36 Ob 9 Jb 32:15; 39:22. e.g. Deuteronomy 1:21
    • b. be dismayed at, sq. מִן Is 31:4, 9; 51:7 (‖ יָרֵא) Je 1:17; 10:2(×2). e.g. Isaiah 31:4

Niphal

  • Pf. only 3 ms. וּמִפְּנֵי שְׁמִי נִחַח Mal 2:5 and at my name he is put in awe (‖ יָרֵא). e.g. Malachi 2:5

Piel

  • Pf. dismay, scare, 2 ms. sf. וְחִתַּתַּ֫נִי בַחֲלֹמוֹת (Köi. 372) consec. Jb 7:14 and thou scarest me with dreams (‖ בִּעֵת); 3 fs. חִתְּתָה Je 51:56 (of bows) is intrans. [inchoat. Ew§ 120, 2 d], Gf. al., be shattered, but text prob. erron. Gie חַתָּה (v. Qal 1). e.g. Job 7:14

Hiphil

  • Pf. 2 ms. הַחִתֹּתָ Is 9:3; 1 s. וְהַחְתַּתִּ֫י Je 49:37 (Köi. 372); Impf. 3 ms. sf. יְחִתֵּנִי Jb 31:34, sf. 3 fpl. יְחִיתַ֑ן Hb 2:17 (Köi. 374; but 𝔊 𝔗 𝔖 Ew Ol Sta We יְחִתֶּ֑ךָ); 1 s. sf. אֲחִתְּךָ Je 1:17 (sq. לפניהם).— e.g. Isaiah 9:3
  • 1. shatter c. acc. Is 9:3. e.g. Isaiah 9:3
  • 2.

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. be shattered, dismayed (Assyrian ḫattu, terror, DlHWB 296; Talm. חִתִּית id.; Ethiopic ሐተተ is scrutari, examinare, v. DiLex. 105)—

— 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

Part of speech: Verb TWOT: 784


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.

חָתַת

  • (b. h.) to break, shatter. Ḥull. 27ᵃ (play on וז̇ב̇ח̇ת̇ Deut. XII, 21) ממקום שז̇ב̇ חָ֗תֵּ֗הוּ from where the blood flows, break it (the animal’s life); ממאי דהאי חתהו לישנא דמתבר הוא what proof have you, that this ḥottehu has the meaning of breaking? (Answ. ref. to תחת, Deut. I, 2. [Ib. חִתּוּי formed fr. חָתָה Pi., sec. r. of חתת.] e.g. Deuteronomy 12:21

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 40 distinct written forms H2865 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.

Form Parsing Example Uses
חַ֖תּוּ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 2 Kings 19:26 4
תֵחָֽת Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 31:8 2
וְ/חַתּ֥וּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Isaiah 31:9 2
וָ/חֹ֔תּוּ Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Isaiah 8:9 2
תֵּחַ֣ת Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Jeremiah 30:10 2
תֵּחָ֑ת Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Chronicles 28:20 2
תֵּחָ֑תּוּ Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Jeremiah 10:2 2
תֵּחָ֔ת Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Ezekiel 2:6 2
תֵּחָֽת Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 1:21 2
אֲחִתְּ/ךָ֖ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Jeremiah 1:17 1
אֵחַ֖תָּה Verb, Niphal, Cohortative, 1st Person, Common, Singular Jeremiah 17:18 1
הַחִתֹּ֖תָ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 9:4 1
וְ/הַחְתַּתִּ֣י Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Jeremiah 49:37 1
וְ/חִתַּתַּ֥/נִי Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Job 7:14 1
וְ/חַתּ֖וּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Isaiah 20:5 1
וַ/יֵּחַ֥תּוּ Verb, Niphal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Samuel 17:11 1
וָ/חָֽתָּה Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Jeremiah 48:1 1
וָ/חָֽתּוּ Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Jeremiah 50:36 1
וָ/חֹֽתּוּ Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Isaiah 8:9 1
חִתְּתָ֖ה Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Jeremiah 51:56 1
חַ֔תָּה Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Jeremiah 14:4 1
חַ֖תָּה Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Jeremiah 48:20 1
חַ֣ת Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Jeremiah 50:2 1
חַ֨תָּה֙ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Jeremiah 48:39 1
חַ֭תּוּ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Job 32:15 1
יְחִיתַ֑/ן Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Habakkuk 2:17 1
יְחִתֵּ֑/נִי Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Job 31:34 1
יֵחַ֛תּוּ Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Jeremiah 23:4 1
יֵחַ֣ת Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 30:31 1
יֵחַ֣תּוּ Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Jeremiah 17:18 1
יֵחַ֥תּוּ Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Jeremiah 10:2 1
יֵחָ֑ת Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Job 39:22 1
יֵחָ֔ת Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 31:4 1
נִחַ֥ת Verb, Niphal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Malachi 2:5 1
תֵחַ֣ת Verb, Niphal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Ezekiel 3:9 1
תֵּחַ֔תּוּ Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Chronicles 20:17 1
תֵּחַ֗תּוּ Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Chronicles 32:7 1
תֵּחַ֨תּוּ֙ Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Chronicles 20:15 1
תֵּחַת֙ Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Jeremiah 1:17 1
תֵּחָֽתּוּ Verb, Niphal, Jussive, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Isaiah 51:7 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2865, 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

Proper names from this root

People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.

Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 39 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 45 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

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.

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

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