Hebrew word · H8395

תְּבוּסָה

tevusat

ruin

Downfall, ruin, being trodden down. The noun is built on the root בּוּס (bus), 'to tread down, trample'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

a treading down, downtreading, ruin, downfall, destruction

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 2 Chronicles 22:7

Range of meaning

Downfall, ruin, being trodden down. The noun is built on the root בּוּס (bus), 'to tread down, trample'. The verb is used of enemies trampling the sanctuary (Isa 63:18), of God's people treading down their foes (Ps 44:5–6 [Eng.]; Ps 60:12), and of trampling as in a winepress or underfoot (Isa 14:25; Prov 27:7, where a full person 'tramples' on honey, meaning they disdain it).

Against the English

KJV/WEB/YLT 'destruction'; BSB and most modern versions 'downfall'. Both are fair. Neither carries the picture in the root: a king trampled down, brought from the height of power to the ground.

Used elsewhere in the period

The noun appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. Lexicons (BDB, HALOT) define it from its root as 'downfall, ruin'. The Greek translators of Chronicles rendered it with an ordinary word for overthrow or ruin.

Where it appears

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 22:7 תְּבוּסַ֣ת [the] downfall of

    Ahaziah’s downfall came from God when he went to visit Joram. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.

    Here: This word appears only here in the Hebrew Bible. It comes from a root meaning 'to tread down, trample', so it pictures a king trodden underfoot: a crushing collapse, not simply a death.

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