מוֹרָא
mo.ra
fear
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Mōrāh (H4172A): Fear in Hebrew Scripture The Hebrew word *mōrāh* denotes fear and appears eleven times throughout the biblical text. As a noun, it captures the concept of fearfulness or the emotion of being afraid—a direct, concrete term for human apprehension or dread. The relatively modest frequency of its occurrence (eleven instances) suggests it represents a specific semantic category within Hebrew's broader vocabulary for fear-related emotions, rather than the most common or general term for this experience. While the lexicon data provided does not detail specific contexts or distinguish between different nuances of fear that *mōrāh* might express, its existence as a distinct lemma indicates that biblical Hebrew distinguished this particular word from synonymous terms for fear. This differentiation suggests ancient speakers recognized meaningful variations in how fear could be expressed or experienced—whether situational anxiety, reverence, or dread—though the precise boundaries of its usage cannot be determined from the definition alone. The word's presence across biblical texts underscores that fear was a concept deemed significant enough to warrant specific vocabulary in ancient Hebrew discourse.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
11 total occurrences across the text
Make vows to Yahweh your God, and fulfill them! Let all of his neighbors bring presents to him who is to be feared.
Isaiah 8:12“Don’t say, ‘A conspiracy!’ concerning all about which this people say, ‘A conspiracy!’ neither fear their threats, nor be terrorized.
Isaiah 8:13Yahweh of Armies is who you must respect as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread.
Jeremiah 32:21and brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, with wonders, with a strong hand, with an outstretched arm, and with great terror;
Malachi 1:6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
Malachi 2:5“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name.
Genesis 9:2The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand.
Deuteronomy 26:8Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders;
Deuteronomy 4:34Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from among another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
Deuteronomy 11:25No man will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you.
Deuteronomy 34:12and in all the mighty hand, and in all the awesome deeds, which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.