Properly, to wander away, i.e. lose oneself; by implication to perish (causative, destroy )
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H6 describes being lost, perishing, coming to ruin, or, in causative uses, destroying. Ecclesiastes 7:15 observes a righteous person perishing despite righteousness, refusing a simple formula that earthly outcomes always measure moral worth.
Reader summary
Full entry for אָבַד (H6) · Open the biblical lexicon
H6 describes being lost, perishing, coming to ruin, or, in causative uses, destroying. Ecclesiastes 7:15 observes a righteous person perishing despite righteousness, refusing a simple formula that earthly outcomes always measure moral worth.
The BSB source-word alignment has 184 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include will perish (16), perish (12), has perished (6), and destroy (5), destroy (5).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 10:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (26), Psalms (26), Deuteronomy (24), Job (15).
H6 describes being lost, perishing, coming to ruin, or, in causative uses, destroying. Ecclesiastes 7:15 observes a righteous person perishing despite righteousness, refusing a simple formula that earthly outcomes always measure moral worth. Ezekiel 34:4 condemns shepherds who have not sought the lost, placing neglected people under God's protective concern.
Psalm 119:176 likens the speaker to a lost sheep who needs the Lord's seeking care. Esther 4:14 names the real danger that Esther and her family may perish while also calling her toward courageous responsibility. H6 can refer to objects, hopes, people, peoples, memory, or ways coming to loss or destruction. It does not always describe final condemnation. Teachers must distinguish intransitive perishing from causative destruction and avoid using disaster, illness, disappearance, or death to declare that a particular sufferer was rejected by God.
H6 gathers experiences of loss, ruin, disappearance, death, failed hope, and destruction. Its contexts range from misplaced animals and vanished objects to national judgment, mortal danger, and neglected people whom shepherds should seek.
In my futile life I have seen both of these: A righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
The Teacher has seen a righteous person perish despite righteousness and a wicked person prolong life, challenging simplistic outcome-based moral accounting.
You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.
Israel's shepherds are condemned for failing to seek the lost, so the word identifies neglected people toward whom leaders owed active care.
I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.
The psalmist confesses wandering like a lost sheep and asks the Lord to seek him while remembering God's commands.
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Mordecai names the danger that Esther and her father's house may perish while holding together providential hope and costly agency.
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. properly, to wander away, i.e. lose oneself; by implication to perish (causative, destroy )
properly, to wander away, i.e. lose oneself; by implication to perish (causative, destroy) BDB: perish Usage: break, destroy(-uction), not escape, fail, lose, (cause to, make) perish, spend, × and surely, take, be undone, × utterly, be void of, have no way to flee.
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 2 selected witnesses from 185 lexical occurrence verses.
אָבַד is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The removal of wicked influence restores peace and order.Proverbs 11:10
The word stresses the complete disappearance of false hope.Proverbs 11:7
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H6 gives Scripture sober language for loss without making every loss transparent. Ecclesiastes directly resists the assumption that righteous conduct always produces longer earthly life. That wisdom is essential at funerals, in illness, and after disaster: a tragic outcome does not disclose a person's hidden guilt. Ezekiel turns the word toward failed leadership.
People described as lost are not disposable; shepherds are accountable for seeking, strengthening, and protecting them. Psalm 119 adds humble prayer from within disorientation, while Esther shows that mortal danger can call forth courageous action without a guarantee of personal survival. Other passages use H6 for divine or human destruction, so grammatical voice and historical setting matter.
Pastors should neither soften judgment into mere inconvenience nor pronounce final judgment where the text describes an object, opportunity, community, memory, or mortal life being lost. Christian hope can name real death and irreversible earthly losses while entrusting ultimate judgment to God. Communities shaped by H6 seek missing and neglected people, resist victim blame, prepare honestly for danger, and make room for lament when explanations remain incomplete.
Eccl.7.15
H6 is a Hebrew verb with intransitive uses such as be lost or perish and causative uses such as destroy. Stem, subject, object, and discourse setting distinguish accidental loss, mortal ruin, disappearance, judgment, and deliberate destruction.
The Old Testament uses H6 for lost property, failed hope, death, destruction, neglected people, and judgment. The New Testament's language of lost people, perishing, seeking, and eternal life continues these themes while requiring attention to distinct Greek words and immediate contexts.