pa.rar denotes breaking or undoing what is established, especially covenants, counsel, vows, and other binding arrangements.

The dominant use concerns violating or dissolving a covenant or comparable binding commitment. Other verses show the term for frustrating counsel or plans, for setting aside vows and communal bonds, and for disrupting conditions such as desire, fear, or justice.

1. Violate or dissolve a covenant · dominant

   In Deuteronomy 31:16 and Deuteronomy 31:20, the sequential perfect forms occur as the people turn to other gods and abandon the covenant made with them. Ezekiel 17:16 and Jeremiah 31:32 likewise place the perfect form in clauses about despising an oath and breaking a covenant; in 1 Kings 15:19 the imperative requests action against a covenant with Baasha.

   Deuteronomy 31:16Deuteronomy 31:20Ezekiel 17:16Jeremiah 31:321 Kings 15:19Leviticus 26:44
2. Frustrate counsel or a plan · common

   In 2 Samuel 15:34, the perfect form concerns undoing Ahithophel's counsel, while 2 Samuel 17:14 uses an infinitive construct where the APB renders the purpose as to “frustrate the counsel of Ahithophel.” The same use is visible when counselors are hired against counsel in Ezra 4:5 and when a devised plan is said to be frustrated in Isaiah 8:10.

   2 Samuel 15:342 Samuel 17:14Ezra 4:5Isaiah 8:10Isaiah 44:25Job 5:12
3. Set aside a vow or communal bond · occasional

   Numbers 30:13 places the listed forms in instructions in which a husband may cause a vow to stand or “break it” in the APB. In Zechariah 11:10 the infinitive construct follows the cutting of a rod and concerns annulling a covenant, and Zechariah 11:14 concerns breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

   Numbers 30:13Numbers 30:14Numbers 30:16Zechariah 11:10Zechariah 11:11Zechariah 11:14
4. Disrupt or shatter a condition · occasional

   Job 16:12 uses the Pilpel sequential imperfect in a complaint where the APB renders the action “he shattered me.” Elsewhere the Hiphil forms are attached to fear, justice, and desire: Job 15:4 says “You also break fear,” Job 40:8 asks about breaking justice, and Ecclesiastes 12:5 says that desire fails.

   Job 16:12Job 15:4Job 40:8Ecclesiastes 12:5

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB commonly uses “break” for covenants, vows, fear, and justice, while it uses “frustrate” for counsel or plans and “shattered” in Job 16:12. These are verse-level renderings rather than word-by-word alignments.