Bible Encyclopedias
Despair

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

dē̇ -spâr ´: The substantive only in 2 Corinthians 4:8 , "perplexed, but not in (the Revised Version (British and American) "yet not unto") despair," literally, "being at a loss, but not utterly at a loss." "Unto despair" here conveys the force of the Greek prefix ex ("utterly," "out and out"). Desperate , in Job 6:26; Isaiah 17:11 . In the latter instance, the Hebrew adjective is derived from a verb = "to be sick," and the literally, rendering would be "incurable" (compare Job 34:6 , "my wound is incurable"). Desperately in Jeremiah 17:9 the King James Version, where the heart is said to be "desperately (i.e. incurably) wicked" or "sick.»