Definition

to cut (off, down or asunder); by implication, to destroy or consume; specifically, to covenant (i.e. make an alliance or bargain, originally by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces)

Etymology

a primitive root;

Where the KJV renders it

• be chewed
• be con-(feder-) ate
• covenant
• cut (down
• off)
• destroy
• fail
• feller
• be freed
• hew (down)
• make a league (covenant)
• lose
• perish
• utterly
• want

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.