Devour
Devour
is a strengthened form of an old verb edo, from the root ed—, whence Lat., edo, Eng., “eat.” The form ephagon, used as the 2nd aorist tense of this verb, is from the root phag—, “to eat up.” It is translated “devour” in Heb 10:27; elsewhere, by the verb “to eat.” See EAT.
kata, “down,” intensive, and No. 1, signifies (a) “to consume by eating, to devour,” said of birds, Mat 13:4; Mar 4:4; Luk 8:5; of the Dragon, Rev 12:4; of a prophet “eating” up a book, suggestive of spiritually “eating” and digesting its contents, Rev 10:9 (cp. Eze 2:8; Eze 3:1-3; Jer 15:16); (b) metaphorically, “to squander, to waste,” Luk 15:30; “to consume” one’s physical powers by emotion, Joh 2:17; “to devour” by forcible appropriation, as of widows’ property, Mat 23:14 (AV only); Mar 12:40; “to demand maintenance,” as false apostles did to the church at Corinth, 2Co 11:20; “to exploit or prey on one another,” Gal 5:15, where “bite … devour … consume” form a climax, the first two describing a process, the last the act of swallowing down; to “destroy” by fire, Rev 11:5; Rev 20:9. See EAT.
from kata, “down,” intensive, pino, “to drink,” in 1Pe 5:8 is translated “devour,” of Satan’s activities against believers. The meaning “to swallow” is found in Mat 23:24; 1Co 15:54; 2Co 2:7; 2Co 5:4; Heb 11:29, RV (for AV, “drowned”); Rev 12:16. See SWALLOW.