parar · break, annul

What it means

parar (פָּרַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “break, annul”.

Frustrate; break a covenant, fail to keep it.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To void a covenant or vow; spoil a plan.
2. To split in two, like the sea.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To break; almost always figuratively: to annul a vow or a counsel, to break a covenant, to frustrate a plan. BDB also gives the sense of ‘split’ and ‘shake’.

• Breaking the covenant Genesis 17:14Jeremiah 31:32Leviticus 26:15
• Annulling a vow Numbers 30:8Numbers 30:12
• Annulling or frustrating a counsel 2 Samuel 17:14Job 5:12Isaiah 8:10
• Breaking a covenant between kings 1 Kings 15:19Ezekiel 17:16
• Splitting the sea Psalms 74:13

Historical and cultural background

Numbers 30 regulates a woman’s vows: the father or the husband can annul them on the day he hears of them; if he keeps silent, they stand (Numbers 30:8, 12).

How we translate it

With a covenant it is “break” (“he has broken my covenant”, Genesis 17:14; “my covenant that they broke”, Jeremiah 31:32). With vows, “annul” (9 times: “then he annuls her vow”, Numbers 30:8). With plans, “frustrate” or “thwart” (“Make a plan, and it will be frustrated”, Isaiah 8:10; “to thwart the good counsel of Ahithophel”, 2 Samuel 17:14). In Psalm 74:13, of the sea, “You split”, and in Job 16:12, “he shook me”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• break ×13
• annul ×9
• broken ×5
• broke ×3
• breaking ×2
• he has broken ×2
• split apart ×2
• thwart ×2
• who frustrates ×2
• are frustrated ×1
• others ×9

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Leviticus×2
• Numbers×8
• Deuteronomy×2
• Judges×1
• 2 Samuel×2
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Ezra×2
• Nehemiah×1
• Job×4
• Psalms×3
• Proverbs×1
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×7
• Jeremiah×5
• Ezekiel×5
• Zechariah×3

• Genesis 17:14

  But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

• Leviticus 26:15

  and if you reject my statutes, and if your soul loathes my rules, so that you do not do all my commandments, and you break my covenant,

• Leviticus 26:44

  Yet even for all this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them and I will not loathe them so as to destroy them completely and break my covenant with them; for I am YHWH their Elohim.

• Numbers 15:31

  Because he has despised the word of YHWH and broken his commandment, that person shall certainly be cut off; their iniquity is on them.

• Numbers 30:8

  But if on the day her husband hears of it he forbids her, then he annuls her vow that is on her and the rash utterance of her lips that she has bound on her soul; and YHWH will forgive her.

• Numbers 30:12

  But if her husband does annul them on the day he hears of them, nothing that came out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning the obligation of her soul shall stand; her husband has annulled them, and YHWH will forgive her.

• Numbers 30:13

  Every vow and every oath of obligation to afflict the soul, her husband may confirm it, and her husband may annul it.

• Numbers 30:15

  But if he does annul them after he has heard of them, then he shall bear her iniquity.”

• Deuteronomy 31:16

  And YHWH said to Moses, “Look, you are about to lie down with your fathers, and this people will rise and prostitute themselves after the foreign gods of the land where they are going, in its midst, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I made with them.

• Deuteronomy 31:20

  For I will bring them into the land that I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they will eat and be satisfied and grow fat, and they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant.

• Judges 2:1

  The angel of YHWH went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you;

• 2 Samuel 15:34

  But if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king; I was your father’s servant in the past, but now I am your servant,’ then you will thwart for me the counsel of Ahithophel.

• 2 Samuel 17:14

  Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For YHWH had commanded to thwart the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that YHWH might bring the evil on Absalom.

• 1 Kings 15:19

  “Let there be a covenant between me and you, as between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you a bribe of silver and gold; go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

• 2 Chronicles 16:3

  “Let there be a covenant between me and you, as between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold; go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

• Ezra 4:5

  and hiring counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, and until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

• Ezra 9:14

  shall we again break your commandments and intermarry with the peoples of these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you made an end of us, so that there is no remnant or escapees?

• Nehemiah 4:15

  It happened that when our enemies heard that it was known to us, and that Elohim had annulled their counsel, we returned all of us to the wall, each to his work.

• Job 5:12

  who frustrates the thoughts of the crafty, so that their hands do not achieve success;

• Job 15:4

  You, moreover, annul the fear, and diminish meditation before El.

• Job 16:12

  I was tranquil, and he shook me; he seized me by the neck and smashed me to pieces, and set me up for himself as a target.

• Job 40:8

  Will you even annul my right? Will you declare me wicked so that you may be in the right?

• Psalms 74:13

  You split the sea by your strength; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.

• Psalms 85:4

  Bring us back, Elohim of our salvation, and annul your vexation with us.

• Psalms 119:126

  It is time to act for YHWH; they have annulled your instruction.

• Proverbs 15:22

  Plans are frustrated where there is no counsel, but with an abundance of counselors they stand.

• Ecclesiastes 12:5

  also of what is high they are afraid, and terrors are in the way; and the almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper grows heavy, and the caper fails, because the human being is going to his eternal house, and the mourners go around in the street;

• Isaiah 8:10

  Make a plan, and it will be frustrated; speak a word, and it will not stand; for with us is El.

• Isaiah 14:27

  For YHWH Tsevaot has planned it, and who will annul it? And his hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?

• Isaiah 24:5

  And the earth has been polluted under its inhabitants; for they have overstepped the instructions, they have changed the statute, they have broken the eternal covenant.

• Isaiah 24:19

  Broken, the earth is broken; split apart, the earth is split apart; shaken, the earth is shaken.

• Isaiah 33:8

  The highways are desolate; the traveler on the path has ceased. He has broken the covenant, he has despised cities, he has no regard for mortals.

• Isaiah 44:25

  who frustrates the signs of the empty talkers, and drives mad diviners; who turns the wise backward, and their knowledge he makes foolish;

• Jeremiah 11:10

  They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words; and they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers.

• Jeremiah 14:21

  Do not spurn us for the sake of your name; do not dishonor the throne of your glory; remember, do not break your covenant with us.

• Jeremiah 31:32

  not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares YHWH.

• Jeremiah 33:20

  “Thus says YHWH: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their time,

• Jeremiah 33:21

  then also my covenant may be broken with David my servant, so that he will not have a son reigning on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, my ministers.

• Ezekiel 16:59

  For thus says Adonai YHWH: I will deal with you as you have done, you who despised the imprecation by breaking a covenant.

• Ezekiel 17:15

  But he rebelled against him by sending his messengers to Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Will he prosper? Will he escape, the one who does these things? Can he break a covenant and escape?

And 10 more times.