Strong's Number: H8045
Original Word: shamad
Usage Notes: "to destroy, annihilate, exterminate." This biblical word occurs also in modern Hebrew, with the root having the connotation of "religious persecution" or "forced conversion." Shamad 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), shamad 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 (2Kings 10:28). When God wants to completely "destroy," He will sweep "with the [broom] of destruction" (Isa 14:23).
Usage Number: 2
Strong's Number: H7843
Original Word: shahat
Usage Notes: "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). Shahat 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" (1Chron 21:15). The word is used as a symbol for a trap in Jer 5:26. Shahat is used frequently by the prophets in the sense of "to corrupt morally" (Isa 1:4; Ezek 23:11; Zeph 3:7).
