Arid; by implication, shrunken, earth (as opposed to water)
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G3584 is a Greek adjective for what is dry or arid and can describe dry land, a withered or shrunken body part, or a dry tree in figurative speech. Hebrews 11:29 says Israel crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, emphasizing a divinely opened route through danger.
Reader summary
Full entry for ξηρός (G3584) · Open the biblical lexicon
G3584 is a Greek adjective for what is dry or arid and can describe dry land, a withered or shrunken body part, or a dry tree in figurative speech. Hebrews 11:29 says Israel crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, emphasizing a divinely opened route through danger.
The BSB source-word alignment has 8 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include withered (3), dry (2), [and the] paralyzed (1), [land] (1), a withered (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 12:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (3), Matthew (2), Hebrews (1), John (1).
G3584 is a Greek adjective for what is dry or arid and can describe dry land, a withered or shrunken body part, or a dry tree in figurative speech. Hebrews 11:29 says Israel crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, emphasizing a divinely opened route through danger. Mark 3:3 and Luke 6:6 describe a man with a withered hand whom Jesus brings into view and heals amid conflict over the Sabbath.
Luke 23:31 contrasts a green tree with a dry one in Jesus' grave warning on the way to crucifixion. Matthew 23:15 uses the conventional contrast of land and sea rather than moral dryness. G3584 opens deliverance, bodily impairment, restored function, aridity, and judgment imagery. It corrects readings that treat disability as spiritual failure or use healing narratives to promise that every faithful person will receive immediate physical restoration.
G3584 describes absence of moisture and its effects: dry ground, arid terrain, a withered body part, or a dry tree. Literal geography, medical description, and figurative warning remain distinct even when each draws on dryness.
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were drowned.
Israel passes through the Red Sea as on dry land, while the pursuing Egyptians are overwhelmed.
Then Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, “Stand up among us.”
Jesus calls the man with the withered hand to stand among the synagogue gathering before healing him.
For if men do these things while the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
On the way to crucifixion, Jesus contrasts what is done when the tree is green with what will happen when it is dry.
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. Physical withering or shriveling, often applied metaphorically to spiritual deadness or moral decay.
Physical withering or shriveling, often applied metaphorically to spiritual deadness or moral decay.
dry: metaphorically (of a sinner), ξύλον ξ., Luk.23:31; of members of the body shrunken by disease, withered: Jhn.5:3; of the hand, Mat.12:10 Mrk.3:3, Luk.6:6, 8; of the dry land, ἡ ξηρά (sc. γῆ, cf. Gen.1:9-10; Jon.1:19, al.): Mat.23:15; γῆ, Heb.11:29.
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.
dry, withered, dry land
Read versedry, withered, dry land
Read versedry, withered, dry land
Read versedry, withered, dry land
Read versedry, withered, dry land
Read versedry, withered, dry land
Read versedry, withered, dry land
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 this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 5 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 8 lexical occurrence verses.
ξηρός is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G3584 names conditions that cannot be interpreted by appearance alone. Dry land at the sea is a miraculous path of deliverance, while a dry tree in Jesus' warning signals a more severe future. A withered hand is neither moral metaphor nor proof of hidden sin. In the synagogue, religious opponents watch Jesus in order to accuse Him, but Jesus brings the man into the center and asks whether the Sabbath is for doing good or harm, saving life or killing.
The person is not a debate prop, even though others treat his condition as an occasion for testing Jesus. Healing displays compassion and authority, yet the passage does not promise identical bodily outcomes in the present. Churches should resist speaking about disabled people as incomplete lessons waiting for a cure. They can seek healing, medical support, accessibility, and prayer while honoring agency and full belonging.
Hebrews' dry path also resists triumphal imitation: Israel's route is God's particular deliverance, not a technique for entering every danger. Faith follows God's word and receives His provision without denying grief when the landscape remains dry.
Mark.3.3
G3584 is an adjective meaning dry and can be substantivized for dry land. With a body part it describes withered or shrunken function, and with tree imagery it can support figurative warning. The modified noun controls the sense.
Creation and exodus texts distinguish sea from dry land, while prophetic literature uses dry trees and arid places for judgment, mortality, or restoration. Gospel healing scenes bring those physical terms into encounters governed by Jesus' compassion and authority.