shadad · destroy, devastate

What it means

shadad (שָׁדַד) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “destroy, devastate”.

Lay waste; the one who does it is "the destroyer."

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 leave a country or city empty and in ruins by force.
2. The one who ruins and loots.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To devastate, to lay waste: to destroy a land, a city or a people completely. The participle designates the devastator. From the same root is שֹׁד (‘devastation’).

• “The devastator” who comes Jeremiah 6:26Jeremiah 48:8Job 15:21
• Devastated cities and lands Isaiah 15:1Jeremiah 4:20Jeremiah 49:3
• “Woe, devastator” Isaiah 33:1Isaiah 21:2
• YHWH devastates the peoples Jeremiah 47:4Jeremiah 25:36
• Destroyed, plundered: other uses Joel 1:10Proverbs 24:15Obadiah 1:5

Historical and cultural background

The noun of the same root sounds like the name Shaddai in the announcement of the day of YHWH: “like devastation from Shaddai it will come” (Isaiah 13:6); this edition points out the play in a note.

How we translate it

“Devastate” and its derivatives in most cases (“devastated” 25 times, “devastator” 8, “devastators” 3, “devastate” 4, “devastating” 4), so that the word can be recognized in the oracles against the nations (“the devastator devastates”, Isaiah 21:2). “Destroyer” or “destroyed” a few times (Jeremiah 6:26; Judges 5:27); “plunder” in Proverbs 24:15 and “plunderers” in Obadiah 5.

How it is translated

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

• devastated ×25
• devastator ×8
• devastate ×4
• devastating ×4
• devastators ×3
• destroyed ×2
• destroyer ×2
• We are utterly ×1
• Whoever plunders ×1
• destroyers ×1
• others ×6

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Judges×1
• Job×2
• Psalms×2
• Proverbs×3
• Isaiah×11
• Jeremiah×26
• Ezekiel×1
• Hosea×2
• Joel×2
• Obadiah×1
• Micah×2
• Nahum×1
• Zechariah×3

• Judges 5:27

  Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell, destroyed.

• Job 12:6

  The tents of devastators are at ease, and security belongs to those who provoke El, to the one who brings Eloah in his hand.

• Job 15:21

  A sound of dreads is in his ears; in peace the devastator comes upon him.

• Psalms 17:9

  from before the wicked who have devastated me, my deadly enemies, who encircle me.

• Psalms 137:8

  Daughter of Babylon, the devastated one, happy is he who repays you your recompense that you dealt to us.

• Proverbs 11:3

  The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.

• Proverbs 19:26

  Whoever plunders a father and drives away a mother is a son who brings shame and brings reproach.

• Proverbs 24:15

  Do not lie in wait, wicked man, at the dwelling of the righteous; do not plunder his resting place;

• Isaiah 15:1

  The burden of Moab. Because in a night Ar of Moab was devastated, it was destroyed; because in a night Kir of Moab was devastated, it was destroyed.

• Isaiah 16:4

  Let my banished ones reside as aliens among you, Moab; be a hiding place for them from before the devastator. For the oppressor has come to an end, devastation has ceased, the tramplers have vanished from the land.

• Isaiah 21:2

  A harsh vision has been told to me: the traitor betrays, and the devastator devastates. Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media! All its sighing I have brought to an end.

• Isaiah 23:1

  The burden of Tyre. Wail, ships of Tarshish, for it is devastated, without house, without entrance; from the land of Kittim it was revealed to them.

• Isaiah 23:14

  Wail, ships of Tarshish, for your stronghold is devastated.

• Isaiah 33:1

  Woe, devastator, and you have not been devastated; and traitor, and they have not betrayed you! When you finish devastating, you will be devastated; when you stop betraying, they will betray you.

• Jeremiah 4:13

  Look, like clouds he comes up, and like the whirlwind are his chariots; swifter than eagles are his horses. Woe to us, for we are devastated!

• Jeremiah 4:20

  Breaking upon breaking is proclaimed, for the whole land is devastated; suddenly my tents are devastated, in a moment my curtains.

• Jeremiah 4:30

  And you, devastated one, what will you do? Though you dress in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with antimony, in vain you make yourself beautiful. The lovers despise you; they seek your soul.

• Jeremiah 5:6

  Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them, a wolf of the steppes will devastate them, a leopard is watching over their cities; everyone who goes out of them will be torn to pieces, for their transgressions are many, their apostasies are mighty.

• Jeremiah 6:26

  Daughter of my people, gird yourself with sackcloth, and roll in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

• Jeremiah 9:19

  For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are devastated! We are greatly ashamed, for we have left the land, for they have cast down our dwellings.’”

• Jeremiah 10:20

  My tent is devastated, and all my cords are snapped; my children have gone out from me, and they are not; there is no one stretching out my tent anymore, or setting up my curtains.

• Jeremiah 12:12

  On all the bare heights in the wilderness destroyers have come, for the sword of YHWH devours from one end of the land to the other end of the land; there is no peace for any flesh.

• Jeremiah 15:8

  Their widows became more numerous before me than the sand of the seas; I brought upon them, upon the mother of the young man, a destroyer at noonday; I made fall upon her suddenly anguish and terrors.

• Jeremiah 25:36

  The sound of the cry of the shepherds, and the wail of the nobles of the flock! For YHWH is devastating their pasture,

• Jeremiah 47:4

  because of the day that is coming to devastate all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and from Sidon every survivor who helps; for YHWH is devastating the Philistines, the remnant of the island of Caphtor.

• Jeremiah 48:1

  Concerning Moab. Thus says YHWH Tsevaot, Elohim of Israel: Woe to Nebo, for it has been devastated! Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is captured; the high refuge is put to shame and dismayed.

• Jeremiah 48:8

  And the devastator will come to every city, and no city will escape; and the valley will perish, and the plain will be destroyed, as YHWH has said.

• Jeremiah 48:15

  Moab is devastated, and one has gone up against her cities, and the choice of his young men have gone down to the slaughter, declares the King, YHWH Tsevaot is his name.

• Jeremiah 48:18

  Come down from glory and sit in thirst, you who dwell, daughter of Dibon; for the devastator of Moab has come up against you; he has destroyed your strongholds.

• Jeremiah 48:20

  Moab is put to shame, for it is dismayed; wail and cry out! Declare in the Arnon that Moab is devastated.

• Jeremiah 48:32

  More than the weeping of Jazer I will weep for you, vine of Sibmah! Your shoots crossed over the sea, to the sea of Jazer they reached; upon your summer fruit and upon your vintage the devastator has fallen.

• Jeremiah 49:3

  Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is devastated! Cry out, daughters of Rabbah! Gird on sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro among the enclosures; for their king will go into exile, his priests and his princes together.

• Jeremiah 49:10

  For I have stripped Esau bare; I have uncovered his hiding places, and he will not be able to hide himself; his offspring is devastated, and his brothers and his neighbors, and he is no more.

• Jeremiah 49:28

  Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck. Thus says YHWH: Rise up, go up against Kedar, and devastate the sons of the east!

• Jeremiah 51:48

  And the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, will shout for joy over Babylon; for from the north the devastators will come to her, declares YHWH.

• Jeremiah 51:53

  Though Babylon should go up to the heavens, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, from me devastators will come to her, declares YHWH.

• Jeremiah 51:55

  For YHWH is devastating Babylon, and he will destroy from her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the tumult of their voice is raised.

• Jeremiah 51:56

  For the devastator has come upon her, upon Babylon, and her mighty men are captured, their bows are shattered; for El of recompenses is YHWH; he will surely repay.

• Ezekiel 32:12

  By the swords of mighty men I will make your multitude fall, the fearsome ones of the nations, all of them; and they will devastate the pride of Egypt, and all her multitude will be exterminated.

• Hosea 10:2

  Their heart is divided; now they will be found guilty; he will break the neck of their altars, he will destroy their standing stones.

And 17 more times.