Hebrew word · H1958

הִי

vahi

woe

An exclamation of lament, 'alas!' or 'woe!' It occurs only here, so its meaning comes from context and from related cries: hôy ('woe!/alas!', the classic prophetic and funeral cry, 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18), ʾôy ('woe!'), and nĕhî ('wailing,' Jer 9:10, 18–20; Mic 2:4).

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 14, 2026

What it means

lamentation, wailing

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 Ezekiel 2:10

Range of meaning: An exclamation of lament, 'alas!' or 'woe!' It occurs only here, so its meaning comes from context and from related cries: hôy ('woe!/alas!', the classic prophetic and funeral cry, 1 Kgs 13:30; Jer 22:18), ʾôy ('woe!'), and nĕhî ('wailing,' Jer 9:10, 18–20; Mic 2:4).
Against the English: 'Woe' is the standard rendering and is acceptable. But modern readers mostly know 'woe' as an archaic word for misfortune ('tales of woe'), not as something shouted at a funeral. 'Wailing' or 'alas!' keeps the sound. NLT's 'pronouncements of doom' turns a cry of grief into a verdict, which is an interpretation.
How it drifted: 'Woe' has become literary. In Hebrew, hî and its relatives were what people actually cried out over a body.
Used elsewhere in the period: Only here. The LXX has ouai ('woe!') and the Vulgate vae. Both understood it as the cry. Many scholars treat it as a short form or variant of nĕhî or hôy. A few suspect a copying problem, but the ancient versions all read some form of 'woe.'

Where it appears

Ezekiel · 1

Ezekiel 2:10 וָהִֽי׃ ס and wailing

which He unrolled before me. And written on the front and back of it were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.

Here: A cry of grief, something like 'alas!' or a wail. This word occurs only here in the Bible. It ends the verse on a bare cry.

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