To swallow
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
G2666 is a Greek verb for swallowing or drinking down and can extend to devouring, consuming, drowning, or overwhelming. First Corinthians 15:54 proclaims that death will be swallowed up in victory when mortality is clothed with immortality.
Reader summary
Full entry for καταπίνω (G2666) · Open the biblical lexicon
G2666 is a Greek verb for swallowing or drinking down and can extend to devouring, consuming, drowning, or overwhelming. First Corinthians 15:54 proclaims that death will be swallowed up in victory when mortality is clothed with immortality.
The BSB source-word alignment has 7 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include has been swallowed up (1), may be swallowed up (1), swallow (1), they were drowned (1), to devour (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 23:24. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (2), 1 Corinthians (1), 1 Peter (1), Hebrews (1).
G2666 is a Greek verb for swallowing or drinking down and can extend to devouring, consuming, drowning, or overwhelming. First Corinthians 15:54 proclaims that death will be swallowed up in victory when mortality is clothed with immortality. Second Corinthians 2:7 warns a church to forgive and comfort a disciplined person so that excessive sorrow does not overwhelm him.
First Peter 5:8 compares the devil to a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, calling believers to sober alertness. Matthew 23:24 uses comic exaggeration for leaders who strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Hebrews remembers the pursuing Egyptians swallowed by the sea, and Revelation pictures the earth swallowing a flood. G2666 opens resurrection, predatory danger, crushing grief, hypocrisy, and consuming forces.
It corrects ministries that invoke vigilance while isolating people in fear and communities that enforce discipline without a path to comfort, restoration, or protection from despair.
G2666 describes taking something down completely, literally by swallowing or figuratively by devouring, consuming, drowning, or overwhelming. Subjects include people, sorrow, death, life, the sea, the earth, and a predator, so agency and object determine whether consumption threatens or saves.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
Paul announces the promised reversal in which death is swallowed up in victory as mortality receives immortality.
So instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
The congregation is urged to forgive and comfort the disciplined person so that excessive sorrow does not overwhelm him.
Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Believers are called to sober alertness because the adversary seeks someone to devour like a roaring lion.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. to swallow
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
7 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I swallow, devour, destroy
Read verseI swallow, devour, destroy
Read verseI swallow, devour, destroy
Read verseI swallow, devour, destroy
Read verseI swallow, devour, destroy
Read verseI swallow, devour, destroy
Read verseI swallow, devour, destroy
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 7 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
καταπίνω is built from these roots:
G2666 portrays totalizing forces, but it does not let threat have the final word. A predator seeks to devour, a sea engulfs pursuers, and sorrow can become so excessive that a disciplined person is overwhelmed. Paul therefore commands forgiveness, comfort, and reaffirmed love after the congregation's response has achieved its purpose. Accountability without restoration can become another consuming danger.
First Corinthians moves to the largest enemy: death itself. Resurrection does not merely help people cope with mortality; death is swallowed up in victory when the perishable is clothed with imperishability. Second Corinthians similarly longs for mortality to be swallowed by life while acknowledging present groaning and burden. Churches can practice alertness without panic and discipline without humiliation.
They should notice isolation, suicidal despair, retaliatory shame, and predatory behavior early, then involve appropriate pastoral, clinical, and emergency support. The promise that life will consume mortality allows honest grief now. It does not require pretending that loss is small, but it denies death, sorrow, and the adversary the authority to define God's final future.
1Cor.15.54
G2666 combines a directional prefix with the verb for drinking and means swallow down or consume. Passive forms can describe being overwhelmed, drowned, or swallowed up, and figurative subjects such as sorrow, death, or life identify the controlling image.
Isaiah's promise that God will swallow up death supplies the explicit background for First Corinthians 15. Exodus sea deliverance, laments about engulfing depths, and wisdom about predatory danger enrich the image without making every use identical.