Bible Dictionary
RUIN
Ruin means the destruction or collapse of a building, state, people, or moral condition. Scripture also uses related terms for desolation, brokenness, and the disastrous results of wickedness.
Definition
Ruin is destruction, collapse, or desolation. It may describe fallen buildings, a devastated state or people, a broken house, or the destructive result of wickedness. Related biblical terms may also signify a stumblingblock, waste place, or ruinous condition.
Biblical Usage
Scripture uses ruin literally for buildings and houses and figuratively for a state or people. It also associates ruin with moral destruction and wickedness, while some passages rendered “ruin” are more accurately translated “stumblingblock” or “stumbling.”
Historical Background
The Revised Version frequently distinguishes among the underlying Hebrew and Greek words, rendering them more specifically as ruins, waste places, stumblingblock, or breakage.
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>roo'-in (haricah, etc.; rhegma): "Ruin," the translation of haricah (Am 9:11; compare Ac 15:16, where the Revised Version (British and American) Greek text, ta katestrammena), and of a number of other Hebrew words: in Lu 6:49 rhegma, "breakage," is used both in a literal sense (Isa 23:13; 25:2, of fallen buildings; Eze 27:27; 31:13, of a state or people; Lu 6:49, of a house, etc.) and with a moral significance (Pr 26:28). the Revised Version margin correctly renders mikhshol in Eze 18:30 "stumblingblock" (the King James Version "ruin"), and the Revised Version (British and American) in Eze 21:15 "stumblings" (the King James Version "ruins"). The Revised Version (British and American) has "ruins" for the King James Version "desolations" in Ezr 9:9, margin "waste places"; Ps 74:3; "in their ruins" for "with their mattocks" (2Ch 34:6, margin " `with their axes.' The Hebrew is obscure"); "midst of the ruin" for "desolation" (Job 30:14); "their ruin" for "their wickedness" (Pr 21:12). "Ruinous" is the translation of mappalah (Isa 17:1) and of natsah (2Ki 19:25; Isa 37:26).</p><p>W. L. Walker</p>