The meaning of Broken in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
bro'-k'-n: Occurs both as past participle of the verb translated "to break" and as an adjective, the former use will be dealt with here only so far as verbs occur which are thus translated but do not present the non-participial forms. Such are: meroach = "bruised," "emasculated" (Leviticus 21:20); chathath = "to frustrate," hence, "to break down" either by violence or by confusion and fear (I Samuel 2:10; Jeremiah 48:20, Jeremiah 48:39); dakhah = "to collapse" (Psalms 44:19; Psalms 51:8); ratsats = "to crack in pieces" "crush" (Ecclesiastes 12:6); kathath = "to bruise or violently strike," "break in pieces" (Isaiah 30:14); Jeremiah 2:16 should evidently be rendered: "have grazed on the crown of thy head," instead of the King James Version "have broken," etc., for ra'ah = "to tend a flock," "pasture," "graze," but gives no hint of the meaning "to break"; 'alah = "to arise," "depart" (Jeremiah 37:11); sunthlao = "to dash together," "shatter" (Matthew 21:44); exorusso = "to dig through," "to extract," "remove" (Mark 2:4).
See BREAK.
Frank E. Hirsch
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