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Hebrew

To fear

יָרֵאStrong’s H3372

yare (ya-re)

Appears in 306 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Yare is the Hebrew word usually translated “afraid”, “fear” and “were afraid”. It appears in 306 verses of the Old Testament.

“And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;”
Daniel 9:4 KJV
Meaning
  1. To fear, revere, be afraid(Qal) · (Niphal) · (Piel) to make afraid, terrify
  2. (TWOT) to shoot, pour
How it's translated
  • you be afraid 56
  • you fear 23
  • and they were afraid 19
  • and awesome 15
  • to fear 13
  • awesome 12
  • you will fear 12
  • and he was afraid 9

Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.

Where it's used most
  • Psalms 45
  • Deuteronomy 36
  • Isaiah 24
  • 1 Samuel 21
  • Genesis 18
  • Jeremiah 18

34 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 306 verses, by book
Numbers 3
12:814:921:34
Ruth 1
3:11
Ecclesiastes 5
3:145:78:1212:512:13
Lamentations 1
3:57
Hosea 1
10:3
Amos 1
3:8
Micah 1
7:17
Habakkuk 2
1:73:2
Zephaniah 4
2:113:73:153:16
Haggai 2
1:122:5
Zechariah 3
8:138:159:5
Malachi 4
1:142:53:54:5
Hebrew dictionary

יָרֵא yare · to fear

: frightening(DANGER) 1) to fear, revere, be afraid 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to fear, be afraid 1a2) to stand in awe of, be awed 1a3) to fear, reverence, honour, respect 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to be fearful, be dreadful, be feared 1b2) to cause astonishment and awe, be held in awe 1b3) to inspire reverence or godly fear or awe 1c) (Piel) to make afraid, terrify 2) (TWOT) to shoot, pour

From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

How the English word “fear” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.

FEAR, noun

[See the Verb.]

  1. A painful emotion or passion excited by an expectation of evil, or the apprehension of impending danger. fear expresses less apprehension than dread, and dread less than terror and fright.
  2. Anxiety; solicitude.
  3. The cause of fear
  4. The object of fear“Except the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me” Genesis 31:42
All definitions and other forms of “fear”
  1. Something set or hung up to terrify wild animals, by its color or noise. Isaiah 24:17Jeremiah 48:43
  2. In scripture, fear is used to express a filial or a slavish passion.“I will put my fear in their hearts” Jeremiah 32:40
  3. The worship of God.“I will teach you the fear of the Lord” Psalms 34:11
  4. The law and word of God.“The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever” Psalms 19:9
  5. Reverence; respect; due regard.“Render to all their dues; fear to whom fear” Romans 13:7

FEAR, verb transitive

[Latin vereor.]

  1. To feel a painful apprehension of some impending evil; to be afraid of; to consider or expect with emotions of alarm or solicitude.
  2. To reverence; to have a reverential awe; to venerate.“This do, and live:for I fear God” Genesis 42:18
  3. To affright; to terrify; to drive away or prevent approach by fear or by a scarecrow. [This seems to be the primary meaning, but now obsolete.]

FEAR, verb intransitive

To be in apprehension of evil; to be afraid; to feel anxiety on account of some expected evil.

  1. “But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” 2 Corinthians 11:3

FEAR, noun

A companion. [Not in use. See Peer.]

    Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.

    Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.