Destroy
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words [1]
Shâmad ( שָׁמַד , Strong'S #8045), “to destroy, annihilate, exterminate.” This biblical word occurs also in modern Hebrew, with the root having the connotation of “religious persecution” or “forced conversion.” Shâmad is found 90 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, the first time in Gen. 34:30: “I shall be destroyed.”
This word always expresses complete “destruction” or “annihilation.” While the word is often used to express literal “destruction” of people (Deut. 2:12; Judg. 21:16), shâmad frequently is part of an open threat or warning given to the people of Israel, promising “destruction” if they forsake God for idols (cf. Deut. 4:25-26). This word also expresses the complete “destruction” of the pagan high places (Hos. 10:8) of Baal and his images (2 Kings 10:28). When God wants to completely “destroy,” He will sweep “with the [broom] of destruction” (Isa. 14:23).
Shâchath ( שָׁחַת , Strong'S #7843), “to corrupt, spoil, ruin, mar, destroy.” Used primarily in biblical Hebrew, this word has cognate forms in a few other Semitic languages such as Aramaic and Ethiopic. It is used about 150 times in the Hebrew Bible and is found first in Gen. 6 where it is used 4 times in reference to the “corruption” that prompted God to bring the Flood upon the earth (Gen. 6:11-12, 17).
Anything that is good can be “corrupted” or “spoiled,” such as Jeremiah’s loincloth (Jer. 13:7), a vineyard (Jer. 12:10), cities (Gen. 13:10), and a temple (Lam. 2:6). Shâchath has the meaning of “to waste” when used of words that are inappropriately spoken (Prov. 23:8). In its participial form, the word is used to describe a “ravening lion” (Jer. 2:30, RSV) and the “destroying angel” (1 Chron. 21:15). The word is used as a symbol for a trap in Jer. 5:26. Shâchath is used frequently by the prophets in the sense of “to corrupt morally” (Isa. 1:4; Ezek. 23:11; Zeph. 3:7).
King James Dictionary [2]
Destroy, L To pile, to build.
1. To demolish to pull down to separate the parts of an edifice, the union of which is necessary to constitute the thing as, to destroy a house or temple to destroy a fortification. 2. To ruin to annihilate a thing by demolishing or by burning as, to destroy a city. 3. To ruin to bring to naught to annihilate as, to destroy a theory or scheme to destroy a government to destroy influence. 4. To lay waste to make desolate.
Go up against this land, and destroy it. Isaiah 36 .
5. To kill to slay to extirpate applied to men or other animals.
Ye shall destroy all this people. Numbers 32 .
All the wicked will he destroy. Psalms 145 .
6. To take away to cause to cease to put an end to as, pain destroys happiness.
That the body of sin might be destroyed. Romans 6 .
7. To kill to eat to devour to consume. Birds destroy insects. Hawks destroy chickens. 8. In general, to put an end to to annihilate a thing or the form in which it exists. An army is destroyed by slaughter, capture or dispersion a forest, by the ax, or by fire towns, by fire or inundation, &c. 9. In chimistry, to resolve a body into its parts or elements.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types [3]
Psalm 63:9 (c) This means to kill the body so that the soul has no body in which to express its desires. (See Matthew 10:28).
Ecclesiastes 5:6 (c) It means to ruin for the purpose for which it was intended.
John 2:19 (a) It means to tear down and wreck so that it is no longer useful.
1 Corinthians 10:9 (a) This is a type of physical death due to poison from the serpents. You will note from the above Scriptures that the word "destroy" never means "annihilation" nor "obliteration" as is taught by some. It always means to "spoil for the use for which it was intended."
Webster's Dictionary [4]
(1): ( v. t.) To ruin; to bring to naught; to put an end to; to annihilate; to consume.
(2): ( v. t.) To put an end to the existence, prosperity, or beauty of; to kill.
(3): ( v. t.) To unbuild; to pull or tear down; to separate virulently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure and organic existence of; to demolish.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [5]
Destroy (utterly). See Ban.
