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Hebrew

To smite

נָכָהStrong’s H5221

nakhah (na-khah)

Appears in 460 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Nakhah is the Hebrew word usually translated “struck down”, “struck” and “struck down him”. It appears in 460 verses of the Old Testament.

“And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns: and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him: and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand.”
Daniel 8:7 KJV
Meaning
  1. To strike, smite, hit, beat, slay, kill(Niphal) to be stricken or smitten · (Pual) to be stricken or smitten · (Hiphil) · (Hophal) to be smitten
How it's translated
  • and he struck down 38
  • and he struck 31
  • and they struck down 27
  • he struck down 17
  • and he struck down him 10
  • and he struck down them 8
  • and he defeated 8
  • and they struck 8

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

Where it's used most
  • 1 Samuel 46
  • 2 Samuel 46
  • 2 Kings 43
  • Joshua 35
  • Judges 29
  • Jeremiah 29

31 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 460 verses, by book
Nehemiah 1
13:25
Esther 1
9:5
Song of Solomon 1
5:7
Lamentations 1
3:30
Daniel 1
8:7
Jonah 2
4:74:8
Micah 2
5:16:13
Haggai 1
2:17
Malachi 1
4:6
Hebrew dictionary

נָכָה nakhah · to smite

1) to strike, smite, hit, beat, slay, kill 1a)(Niphal) to be stricken or smitten 1b) (Pual) to be stricken or smitten 1c) (Hiphil) 1c1) to smite, strike, beat, scourge, clap, applaud, give a thrust 1c2) to smite, kill, slay (man or beast) 1c3) to smite, attack, attack and destroy, conquer, subjugate, ravage 1c4) to smite, chastise, send judgment upon, punish, destroy 1d) (Hophal) to be smitten 1d1) to receive a blow 1d2) to be wounded 1d3) to be beaten 1d4) to be (fatally) smitten, be killed, be slain 1d5) to be attacked and captured 1d6) to be smitten (with disease) …

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

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

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

SMITE, verb transitive

preterit tense smote; participle passive smitten, smil. [This verb is the Latin mitto.]

  1. To strike; to throw, drive or force against, as the fist or hand, a stone or a weapon; to reach with a blow or a weapon; as, to smite one with the fist; to smite with a rod or with a stone. Matthew 5:39“Whoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” Matthew 5:39
  2. To kill; to destroy the life of by beating or by weapons of any kind; as, to smite one with the sword, or with an arrow or other engine.
  3. To blast; to destroy life; as by a stroke or by something sent. Exodus 9:15“The flax and the barley were smitten” Exodus 9:31
  4. To afflict; to chasten; to punish.
All definitions and other forms of “smite”
  1. To strike or affect with passion.

SMITE, verb intransitive

To strike; to collide. The heart melteth and the kness smite together. Nahum 2.

    SMITE, noun

    A blow.

      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.