אֵימָה
e.mah (H0367)
terror
AI Word Study
# Analysis of H0367 (אֵימָה - e.mah) The Hebrew word *e.mah* carries the primary meaning of "terror," indicating an intense state of fear or dread. With 17 occurrences across the biblical text, this term appears with sufficient frequency to suggest it held meaningful significance in ancient Hebrew discourse about fear and emotional experience. The word denotes not merely casual concern but rather a profound psychological response—a terror that grips or overwhelms. The term's presence throughout the biblical corpus suggests it was used to describe significant moments of fear, likely in contexts where human beings encountered the divine, confronted danger, or experienced existential threat. The specific number of occurrences (17) indicates this was a standard vocabulary choice for expressing this particular emotional state, neither so common as to be mundane nor so rare as to be archaic or specialized. By selecting *e.mah* rather than other possible terms for fear, biblical writers conveyed the intensity and gravity of the terror being described. Without access to specific usage contexts, we can note that the existence and persistence of this dedicated term for "terror" reflects the biblical world's recognition that fear operates on a spectrum, and that some experiences of dread warranted their own linguistic designation. The word represents how ancient Hebrew distinguished between ordinary worry and the kind of terror that fundamentally disrupts normal experience.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Now terror and great darkness fell on him.
Terror and dread falls on them. By the greatness of your arm they are as still as a stone, until your people pass over, Yahweh, until the people you have purchased pass over.
I will send my terror before you, and will confuse all the people to whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
Outside the sword will bereave, and in the rooms, terror on both young man and virgin, the nursing infant with the gray-haired man.
She said to the men, “I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.
In spite of their fear because of the peoples of the surrounding lands, they set the altar on its base; and they offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh, even burnt offerings morning and evening.
withdraw your hand far from me, and don’t let your terror make me afraid.
He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him.
Behold, my terror will not make you afraid, neither will my pressure be heavy on you.
Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome.
Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror.
My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me.
I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion. He who provokes him to anger forfeits his own life.
Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?
A drought is on her waters, and they will be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.