Hebrew word · H10

אֲבַדּוֹן

va'avadoh

destruction

'Place of perishing' or 'ruin', from the verb אָבַד, 'to perish, be lost'. It always names the realm of the dead. It is paired with Sheol (Job 26:6; Prov 15:11), with Death (Job 28:22) and with the grave (Ps 88:11), and is used of a consuming fire of ruin (Job 31:12).

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

a perishing

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Proverbs 27:20

Range of meaning

'Place of perishing' or 'ruin', from the verb אָבַד, 'to perish, be lost'. It always names the realm of the dead. It is paired with Sheol (Job 26:6; Prov 15:11), with Death (Job 28:22) and with the grave (Ps 88:11), and is used of a consuming fire of ruin (Job 31:12).

Against the English

The KJV has 'destruction', a common noun, so English readers hear an abstract process. BSB, WEB, ESV and NASB keep it as the proper name 'Abaddon'. NIV and NLT capitalise 'Destruction' to mark it as a name.

How it drifted

Modern readers mostly know 'Abaddon' from Revelation 9:11, where it is the name of the angel of the abyss. That personification comes much later. In Proverbs it is simply a second, poetic name for the underworld.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 26:6; 28:22; 31:12; Ps 88:11 (88:12 Heb.); Prov 15:11; it also appears in the Dead Sea Scrolls, e.g. the Thanksgiving Hymns (1QH), alongside Sheol. The Septuagint renders it apōleia ('ruin').

Similar words

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 27:20 וַ֭אֲבַדּוֹ and destruction its

    Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

    Here: A shortened spelling of Abaddon, 'the Perishing-place', which is a poetic second name for the underworld. Paired with Sheol it makes one double name for the realm of death, not two separate places.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.