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BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY

Abaddon

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Original Hebrew / Aramaic / Greek connected to this term

How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.

GREEK · G3

Ἀβαδδών

Abaddōn — Abaddon

Ἀβαδδών (Heb. אֲבַדּוֹן, destruction; LXX, ἀπώλεια, only in Wisdom Lit., of the place of the ruined dead: Job.26:6, 28:22, 31:12, Psa.88:12, Pro.15:11*), indecl.; in NT, Abaddon, the angel of the Abyss: Rev.9:11.† (AS)

1 tagged verse occurrence · see every occurrence →

Historical dictionary entry

Destruction, the Hebrew name (equivalent to the Greek Apollyon, i.e., destroyer) of “the angel of the bottomless pit” (Rev. 9:11). It is rendered “destruction” in Job 28:22; 31:12; 26:6; Prov. 15:11; 27:20. In the last three of these passages the Revised Version retains the word “Abaddon.” We may regard this word as a personification of the idea of destruction, or as sheol, the realm of the dead.

Scripture references

Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.

Scripture cited by this entry (KJV)

Read the quoted verses in their chapters to evaluate the historical dictionary references.

Revelation 9:11

And they had a king over them, [which is] the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue [is] Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath [his] name Apollyon.

Job 28:22

Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.

Job 31:12

For it [is] a fire [that] consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

Compare other reference traditions

Look up Abaddon in Smith’s Bible Dictionary and ISBE →