H4875 H4875
Desolation, devastation, or utter ruin and waste
This noun describes complete devastation—places or lives reduced to wasteland. It appears in poetic pairs with other terms for destruction. Zephaniah's description of the Day of the Lord calls it 'a day of devastation and desolation.' Job uses it twice: once for lives wasted by want and famine 'gnawing the dry ground,' and once for God's voice thundering in 'the desolate waste.' The term evokes emptiness, howling wilderness, the aftermath of total destruction where nothing remains but rubble and silence.
Senses
1. sense 1 — Desolation or devastation, complete ruin. Zephaniah 1:15 describes the Day of the Lord: 'a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation'—pairing this term with multiple synonyms for destruction. Job 30:3 depicts the wretched 'gnawing the dry ground in the gloom of waste and desolation.' Job 38:27 speaks of God's rain 'to satisfy the waste and desolate land.' The Spanish 'desolación' and French 'désolation' directly translate this sense of utter emptiness. 3×
AR["وَ-بَلاءٌ", "وَ-دَمَارٍ", "وَالْخَرَابَ"]·ben["আর-ধ্বংসস্থলকে", "আর-শূন্যতা", "ও-বিনাশের"]·DE["[ומשאה]", "[ומשואה]"]·EN["and-desolation", "and-devastation"]·FR["et-désolation", "et-ומשאה"]·heb["ו-משואה"]·HI["और-उजाड़", "और-उजाड़-का", "और-वीरान"]·ID["dan-kehancuran", "dan-kerusakan"]·IT["e-desolazione", "e-e-desolation"]·jav["lan-kasirnaaken", "lan-sepi"]·KO["그리고-폐허-의", "그리고-폐허의", "그리고-황량한-곣을"]·PT["e-destruição", "e-devastação", "e-ermo"]·RU["и-запустение", "и-разрушения"]·ES["y-desolación", "y-devastación", "y-ruina"]·SW["na-uharibifu", "na-ukiwa"]·TR["ve-harabenin", "ve-çöl", "ve-çölü"]·urd["اور-بربادی کو", "اور-ویرانی-کا"]
Related Senses
H4421 1. war, battle, armed conflict (319×)H0341 1. enemy, adversary, foe (284×)H3898a 1. Nifal: to fight, wage war (167×)H2026 1. kill, slay (active) (146×)H2451 1. wisdom, discernment (146×)H5483b 1. horse (the animal) (138×)H0006 1. to perish, be destroyed (105×)H7843 1. Hifil: destroy, annihilate (83×)H2491a 1. slain, fatally pierced (74×)H6862c 1. adversary, enemy, foe (69×)H8045 1. destroy, exterminate (69×)G0615 1. kill, put to death (60×)H6571b 1. horseman, cavalryman (52×)H8077a 1. desolation, waste (abstract state) (52×)G4678 1. of wisdom (51×)G4717 1. crucify, fasten to a cross (46×)H2763a 1. utterly destroy (Hifil active) (44×)G0622 1. perish, be destroyed (intransitive) (41×)H0006 2. to destroy, annihilate (Piel) (38×)H8074 1. be desolate, lie waste (36×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† מְשׁוֹאָה, מְשֹׁאָה n.f. desolation;— 1. sg. only in שֹׁאָה וּמ׳ Zp 1:15; Jb 30:3; 38:27, v. above; 2. pl. (מַשּׁוּאוֹת, read) מְשׁוֹאוֹת, so Klo Hup-Now CheComm. Bae Du ψ 74:3 ruins (of temple) and 73:18 ruins (of one’s life, fig.; but Du here der.from נשׁא: deceptions, v. p. 674; yet cf. synon. שַׁמָּה v 19).