to be left over after the rest is gone, or to leave something over
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled
At its core this word is about a leftover: what stays behind once everything else has been used up, carried off, or destroyed. It works two ways. In the simple form it describes what is left of its own accord, the part that survives when the larger whole is gone. In the causative form someone does the leaving: they spare a survivor, keep back a portion, or fail to consume everything.
Both uses look at the same picture from opposite sides. To be left over and to leave over are the active and passive faces of one idea, a remainder. That is why the same word covers the few men who survived a slaughter and the conqueror who let them live.
The word carries great theological weight in the prophets. The handful that survives judgment becomes the remnant, the small surviving group through whom God keeps his promises alive after a catastrophe. The related nouns for that remnant are built on this verb, so its everyday sense of leftovers grows into one of the Bible's deepest hopes: that judgment is never total, and a seed is always left.
Nuances
1ato be left over, remain, or survive after others are gone
the Hebrew is literally to leave someone remaining, so even to spare is framed as not finishing the destructionJos 10:281Ki 15:29
Both
both describe leaving a survivor alive when others are killedNum 21:35
Only spare
English spare suggests mercy or restraint as the motive, which this word does not itself state
“survive”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“leave”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How sha'ar differs from similar Hebrew words
יתרthe other common verb for being left over or remaining; overlaps heavily but leans toward what is surplus or remains in addition, rather than what survives a loss
Names what is left over as surplus or remainder, the extra portion of food or offering that stays once the rest is used.Exo 12:10Exo 16:19Lev 2:3Lev 7:16
Can carry the sense of having more than enough, an abundance left to spare.Exo 36:7Deu 28:11Deu 30:9
שׁאריתthe noun remnant built on this verb; names the surviving group itself rather than the act of surviving
A verb: the action or state of being left over, who or what survives after the rest is gone.Gen 7:23Exo 10:19Jos 11:22
Also to leave something behind on purpose, to spare or reserve a portion rather than take or destroy it all.Exo 10:26Lev 5:9Rut 1:3
Both
Both name what survives a catastrophe; a single verse can use the verb for the act of being left and the noun for the survivors that result.2Sa 14:7Jer 24:8Ezk 9:8
The action of being left over or surviving after others are gone, often after a destruction or slaughter.Gen 7:23Exo 14:28Jos 11:22
Means to leave something behind or let it remain, the deliberate act of sparing or keeping back a portion.Exo 10:26Lev 5:9Num 11:26
Both
Both speak of the remnant that survives, the same root naming both the act of remaining and the remnant left, joined in the promise of a recovered people.Isa 11:11Isa 11:16
The leftover portion as a thing, the rest or remainder of a group, often listed as those who are left after the main reckoning.Neh 11:1Est 9:122Ch 24:14
The theologically weighted remnant of Israel, the surviving few through whom God preserves his people.Isa 10:20Isa 10:21Isa 28:5
שׂרידa survivor or one who escapes; names the surviving individual, often a fugitive who got away, where this word is the act of remaining
Is a verb, to be left over or remain, used broadly of whatever stays behind after a loss, including ordinary things like food, livestock, or people staying in a place.Gen 7:23Exo 10:5Rut 1:3
Carries the theological idea of the remnant that is LEFT, the few preserved when the rest are gone.1Ki 19:18Deu 4:27Num 11:26
Both
Both describe what is left after a battle of annihilation, paired in the conquest accounts to stress that none was left and none survived.Num 21:35Jos 10:28
Both name the remnant left over from total destruction, the few that remain when the rest are cut off.Deu 3:3
Belongs to scenes of destruction and names who or what is still alive when the rest has been wiped out: Noah alone after the flood, not one soldier after the sea closes, one man left standing after a battle.Gen 7:23Exo 14:28Jdg 4:16
Works from the other side too, with a person doing the leaving. The standing formula for a total conquest is that the victor let no one remain alive, and mercy is described the same way, as sparing someone who is left.Num 21:35Deu 3:3Jos 10:40
Also covers what is still outstanding rather than what survived: territory not yet taken, and nations not yet driven out of the land.Jos 13:1Jos 13:2Jos 23:4
Carries the prophets' hope of a surviving few: the small group left after judgment, out of whom God starts again. That weight is entirely absent from עָדַף.Isa 4:3Isa 11:11Isa 37:31
Both
Both name food that is still there once people have eaten their fill, and both turn up in rules about keeping or not keeping it until morning.Exo 16:23Num 9:12
Both can name the part of a measured portion that is not used up in the main act: the cloth beyond what the tent needed, the blood beyond what the sprinkling took.Exo 26:13Lev 5:9
The extra is measured against a stated requirement: a day's ration of food, the frame the tent cloth has to cover, the number of Levites to be matched. Nothing is lost or destroyed in these scenes, and nobody is in danger. There is simply more than the standard called for.Exo 16:18Exo 26:12Num 3:46
Because the extra is a countable amount, it can be priced and settled in silver: money handed back for the years still owed on a field that was sold, redemption money for the sons who outnumbered the Levites. שָׁאַר never puts a price on what is left.Lev 25:27Num 3:48Num 3:49
sha'ar in the other biblical languages
καταλείπωGreek“to leave behind”Greek for leaving behind or leaving over; the closest counterpart to the causative side of this word, sparing or keeping some back
Stresses what is left over after destruction, the survivors who remain when the rest have perished, with the remnant as the subject.Gen 7:23Exo 10:19Deu 4:27
Describes none being left, the total wiping out in which not a single survivor remains.Jos 10:28Jos 11:8Num 21:35
Both
Both name the leaving of a faithful remnant: Paul uses the Greek word to quote God reserving seven thousand, and the Hebrew word repeatedly marks the few who are left after judgment.Rom 11:4Gen 7:23
Is the standard word for being left over or surviving, used across all kinds of leftovers, from food and people to nations not yet driven out.Gen 7:23Exo 10:5Jos 11:22
Carries the prophetic remnant theme, the few who remain after judgment as the surviving seed of a people.Lev 26:36Deu 4:27
Both
Both name being the one left over after others are gone, and the Greek word renders the lament of the lone survivor that draws on the Hebrew remnant idea.1Ki 19:18Rom 11:3
It is the standard word for who is still alive once a flood, a plague, or an army has finished its work, and it turns up again and again in the grim report that not one survivor was left.Gen 7:23Num 21:35Deu 3:3Jos 10:28
It carries the hope that a people cut down to a handful still survives to carry the nation forward, the picture usually called "the remnant", which is a whole strand of Old Testament thought that the Greek word never touches.Deu 4:27Deu 28:62
It is used of food and supplies: what a swarm of locusts or an invading army leaves behind, or refuses to leave behind, after stripping the land bare.Exo 10:5Deu 28:51
Both
Both say that nothing at all is left once everything has been accounted for, and English Bibles render both with the same handful of words, "left" and "remain". The Hebrew word reports a battle after which no survivor was left; the Greek word reports a sin after which no sacrifice is left to cover it.Num 21:35Heb 10:26
Both can describe something set down on purpose while the rest moves on. Moses insists that not one animal be left behind in Egypt, and Paul asks for the coat he left behind at Troas.Exo 10:262Ti 4:13
It can name walking out on a place or a position that was rightfully yours, so the leaving is an act of desertion rather than a simple absence. Jude uses it of angels who abandoned their own home.Jud 1:6
It can say that something is still outstanding and still on offer, a promise that has not yet been claimed or a rest still waiting to be entered, rather than counting who or what survived a disaster.Heb 4:6Heb 4:9
It covers the ordinary business of travel, where someone sets down a piece of luggage or a coworker at one stop and keeps going, with no hint of danger or loss in the background.2Ti 4:20Tit 1:5
Covers the survivors left after a disaster wipes out the rest: only a handful come through a flood, a plague, or a war alive.Gen 7:23Exo 10:19Jos 11:22
Carries the hope of a faithful remnant: a small group God keeps alive through judgment to begin again.Isa 4:3Isa 11:112Ki 19:30
Used for plain things left over or left behind, with no thought of survival from danger: what is left after others have taken or gone.Exo 10:26Lev 25:52
Both
Both mean to be left over: to remain when others around you have been taken away or have died.Gen 7:231Th 4:17
Names the believers who are still alive at one future moment: those left living when the Lord returns, set apart from the dead who have gone before.1Th 4:151Th 4:17
What scholars say about sha'ar
The standard lexica treat this verb as a single root meaning to remain or be left over (simple form) and to leave over or spare (causative form). The two forms are the passive and active faces of one notion of remainder, and there is no recognized homonym. Its theological importance is its role in the remnant motif of the prophets, where the survivors of judgment become the surviving group through whom God preserves his purposes, an idea developed at length in the theological dictionaries around this root and its derived nouns.
Sources
HALOT, s.v. שארlexicon
BDB, s.v. שארlexicon
DCH, s.v. שארlexicon
G. F. Hasel, "שאר śāʾar," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT)theological-dictionary
G. F. Hasel, The Remnant: The History and Theology of the Remnant Idea from Genesis to Isaiahmonograph