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shevi'i

שְׁבִיעִי

HebrewH7637seventh

Appears 98 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 2:2 (2×)Gen 2:3Gen 8:4Exo 12:15Exo 12:16Exo 13:6Exo 16:26Exo 16:27Exo 16:29Exo 16:30Exo 20:10Exo 20:11Exo 21:2Exo 23:11Exo 23:12Lev 23:16Lev 25:4Lev 25:9Lev 25:20Deu 15:12Jos 6:161Ki 18:442Ki 11:42Ki 18:91Ch 2:151Ch 12:11(12)1Ch 24:101Ch 25:142Ch 5:32Ch 23:1Ezr 7:8Neh 10:31(32)Ezk 20:1
Root family
Word studysheh-vee-EEadjective

What shevi'i means

seventh: the ordinal number marking the seventh item, day, month, or year in a sequence

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

This is simply the word "seventh," the ordinal formed from the Hebrew word for seven. Like the English "seventh," it answers the question "which one?" by placing something at position seven in a counted series: the seventh day, the seventh month, the seventh year, the seventh time around the walls of Jericho. There is only one thing the word means, and most of its uses are ordinary counting.

What makes "seventh" stand out in the Hebrew Bible is not a second meaning but where the count keeps landing. From the opening chapter of Genesis onward, the seventh slot in a series is the one God sets apart. God finishes creation in six days and rests on the seventh, blessing it and making it holy (Genesis 2:2 to 2:3); that pattern becomes the weekly sabbath, the day of rest commanded for the whole household (Exodus 20:10 to 20:11). The same rhythm scales up: the land itself keeps a sabbath in the seventh year, lying fallow while debts are released and slaves freed (Exodus 21:2; Leviticus 25:4), and the seventh month is the most festival-dense month of the calendar, holding the Festival of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Festival of Booths (Leviticus 23:24 to 23:34).

So when a reader meets "seventh" in these books, the word is doing two things at once: it is counting, and, very often, it is naming the appointed time of rest, release, and worship. The weight is carried by the contexts the number falls into, not by any extra sense hiding inside the word.

Gen 2:2 (2×)Gen 2:3Gen 8:4Exo 12:15Exo 12:16Exo 13:6Exo 16:26Exo 16:27Exo 16:29Exo 16:30Exo 20:10Exo 20:11

What scholars say about shevi'i

The lexica (BDB; HALOT) treat she.vi.i straightforwardly as the ordinal of the cardinal sheva (seven), without disputed semantic range. Its theological prominence is well surveyed in the dictionary articles on the number seven and on the sabbath: the seventh-day rest of Genesis 2:2 to 2:3 grounds the weekly sabbath (Exodus 20:8 to 11), and the same septenary pattern structures the sabbatical year and the calendar of the seventh month (Leviticus 23, 25). Standard treatments include the TDOT and TWOT entries on sheva / shiv'a and on shabbat, and the broader discussion of seven as a number of completeness in the ancient Near Eastern background. Scholars note that the weight rests on the cultic and calendrical contexts rather than on the ordinal itself, which remains an ordinary counting word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. שְׁבִיעִיlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. שְׁבִיעִיlexicon
  • TDOT, s.v. שֶׁבַע (sheva)dictionary
  • TWOT, s.v. שָׁבַע / שֶׁבַעdictionary

All attested forms of שְׁבִיעִי

m s absolute

שְּׁבִיעִי, שְּׁבִעִי

Gen 2:2, Gen 2:2, Gen 2:3, Gen 8:4, Exo 12:16, Exo 13:6, Exo 16:26, Exo 16:27

f s absolute

שְּׁבִיעִית, שְּׁבִיעִת, שְּׁבִעִית, שְּׁבִעִת

Jos 6:16, 2Ki 11:4, 2Ki 18:9, Ezr 7:8, Neh 10:31, Ezk 20:1, Exo 23:11, Lev 23:16