how do you say “really, really bad” in Hebrew?

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/נורא-ואיום-1.m4a” /]נוֹרָא וְאָיוֹם

This expression appears first in Biblical Hebrew, though there the words appear in the opposite order:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/נורא-ואיום-2.m4a” /]כִּי-הִנְנִי מֵקִים אֶת-הַכַּשְׂדִּים, הַגּוֹי הַמַּר וְהַנִּמְהָר; הַהוֹלֵךְ, לְמֶרְחֲבֵי-אֶרֶץ, לָרֶשֶׁת, מִשְׁכָּנוֹת לֹּא-לוֹ. אָיֹם וְנוֹרָא, הוּא… (חבקוק א’:ו’-ז’)

For I am establishing the Chaldeans, that bitter, hasty nation, who goes to the ends of the earth to seize dwellings not his own. They are feared and dreaded… (Habakkuk 1:6-7)

In the Biblical version, איום ונורא[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/נורא-ואיום-3.m4a” /] means essentially frightening or even awe-inspiring. Modern Hebrew takes the phrase a step deeper into the darkness, where נורא ואיום[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/נורא-ואיום-1.m4a” /] – literally, awesome and dreadful – becomes a somewhat dramatic expression meaning terrible or awful.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/נורא-ואיום-4.m4a” /]האוכל שם נורא ואיום.

The food there is terrible.

And, more literally:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/נורא-ואיום-5.m4a” /]מה שנעשה בנווה צוף זה נורא ואיום.

What was perpetrated in Neve Tzuf was horrible.