To totter or waver (through weakness of the legs, especially the ankle); by implication, to falter , stumble , faint or fall
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H3782 describes tottering, stumbling, failing, or being brought down and can portray bodily weakness, exhausted strength, moral collapse, military defeat, or instruction that causes others to fall. The context must distinguish vulnerability from guilt and personal faltering from being made to stumble; not every weakness is sinful, and some falls expose the responsibility of leaders or systems.
Reader summary
Full entry for כָּשַׁל (H3782) · Open the biblical lexicon
H3782 describes tottering, stumbling, failing, or being brought down and can portray bodily weakness, exhausted strength, moral collapse, military defeat, or instruction that causes others to fall. The context must distinguish vulnerability from guilt and personal faltering from being made to stumble; not every weakness is sinful, and some falls expose the.
The BSB source-word alignment has 63 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include stumble (7), will stumble (5), they stumble (4), stumbles (3), to stumble (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Leviticus 26:37. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (11), Jeremiah (11), Psalms (7), Daniel (6).
H3782 describes tottering, stumbling, failing, or being brought down and can portray bodily weakness, exhausted strength, moral collapse, military defeat, or instruction that causes others to fall. The context must distinguish vulnerability from guilt and personal faltering from being made to stumble; not every weakness is sinful, and some falls expose the responsibility of leaders or systems.
In Job. 4. 4, eliphaz recalls that Jobs words had steadied people who stumbled and strengthened knees that were giving way. In Neh. 4. 10, the people of Judah admit that the laborers strength is failing and the rubble makes rebuilding appear impossible. H3782 opens teaching on how people and communities respond when strength fails, paths become dangerous, or entrusted instruction trips those it should guide.
It corrects blame that treats every fall as personal sin and leadership narratives that hide how teaching, pressure, neglect, or unsafe conditions can cause others to stumble. H3782 keeps frailty and accountability together: Job is remembered for words that steadied stumbling people, Judahs laborers confess that their strength is failing amid overwhelming rubble, and Malachi charges priests whose instruction has caused many to stumble, shifting attention from blaming the fallen to examining those entrusted with guidance.
For H3782, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. The verb does not identify disability or fatigue as moral failure, promise that faithful people never falter, or allow leaders to call every question and setback rebellion.
H3782 appears across passages that develop stumbling, weakness, exhausted labor, moral failure, harmful teaching, sustaining speech, judgment, recovery, and communal responsibility. For H3782, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
Your words have steadied those who stumbled; you have braced the knees that were buckling.
Eliphaz recalls that Jobs words had steadied people who stumbled and strengthened knees that were giving way.
Meanwhile, the people of Judah said: “The strength of the laborer fails, and there is so much rubble that we will never be able to rebuild the wall.”
The people of Judah admit that the laborers strength is failing and the rubble makes rebuilding appear impossible.
But you have departed from the way, and your instruction has caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the Lord of Hosts.
The Lord charges the priests with departing from the way and causing many to stumble through their instruction.
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.
Hebrew word. Physical weakness escalating to moral/spiritual failure; stumbling progresses from literal trip to complete collapse or ruin
Physical weakness escalating to moral/spiritual failure; stumbling progresses from literal trip to complete collapse or ruin
to totter or waver (through weakness of the legs, especially the ankle); by implication, to falter, stumble, faint or fall BDB: stumble Usage: bereave (from the margin), cast down, be decayed, (cause to) fail, (cause, make to) fall (down, -ing), feeble, be (the) ruin(-ed, of), (be) overthrown, (cause to) stumble, × utterly, be weak.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 65 lexical occurrence verses.
כָּשַׁל is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Persistent rejection results in spiritual collapse.Hosea 14:9
The term captures the moral and spiritual collapse resulting from rebellion against the Lord.Isaiah 28:7-13
Describes the fate of transgressors.Isaiah 3:1-12
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H3782 keeps frailty and accountability together: Job is remembered for words that steadied stumbling people, Judahs laborers confess that their strength is failing amid overwhelming rubble, and Malachi charges priests whose instruction has caused many to stumble, shifting attention from blaming the fallen to examining those entrusted with guidance. H3782 describes tottering, stumbling, failing, or being brought down and can portray bodily weakness, exhausted strength, moral collapse, military defeat, or instruction that causes others to fall.
The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Job. 4. 4 shows that eliphaz recalls that Jobs words had steadied people who stumbled and strengthened knees that were giving way. , while Neh. 4. 10 shows that the people of Judah admit that the laborers strength is failing and the rubble makes rebuilding appear impossible.. Mal. 2. 8 adds that the Lord charges the priests with departing from the way and causing many to stumble through their instruction..
H3782 opens teaching on how people and communities respond when strength fails, paths become dangerous, or entrusted instruction trips those it should guide. It corrects blame that treats every fall as personal sin and leadership narratives that hide how teaching, pressure, neglect, or unsafe conditions can cause others to stumble. A church teaching H3782 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support.
The verb does not identify disability or fatigue as moral failure, promise that faithful people never falter, or allow leaders to call every question and setback rebellion.
Job.4.4
H3782 is a Hebrew verb for tottering, stumbling, weakening, failing, or falling; causative uses can emphasize making another stumble, so grammatical stem and subject materially affect responsibility.
The Old Testament pairs warnings about stumbling with commands to strengthen weak knees and remove hazards from the path. The New Testament continues concern for stumbling blocks, restoration, and mutual care while centering hope in Christ, who meets human weakness without erasing moral accountability.