StrongerBible

seh

שֶׂה

HebrewH7716lamb, sheep, ...

Appears 47 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 22:7Gen 22:8Gen 30:32 (2×)Exo 12:3 (2×)Exo 12:4 (2×)Exo 12:5Exo 13:13Exo 22:1(21:37) (2×)Exo 22:4(3)Exo 22:9(8)Exo 22:10(9)Exo 34:19Exo 34:20Num 15:11Deu 14:4 (2×)Deu 22:11Sa 14:34Isa 43:23Isa 53:7Isa 66:3
Root family

What seh means

a single head of small livestock from the flock: one sheep or goat, often a lamb or kid

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This word names one animal taken from the flock. In ancient Israel the flock held both sheep and goats together, and this word points to a single member of it without first deciding which kind. When the writer wants to be exact, a following word does the narrowing: the law in Deuteronomy can speak of "one of the sheep" and "one of the goats" using this same base word for the animal in each case, and the Passover rule lets the household take its animal either from the sheep or from the goats. So the word is best understood as "a head of the flock" rather than a particular species.

Because it picks out one animal, it is the natural word for the creature on an altar, the beast a thief must repay, and the stray that wanders off. English translators reach for sheep, lamb, kid, or simply cattle depending on the scene, but the underlying idea stays the same throughout: a single animal of the flock.

The word carries no second, unrelated meaning. Its range is the range of one idea applied to many settings, from sacrifice and law to the shepherd imagery of the prophets and psalms.

Gen 22:7Gen 22:8Gen 30:32 (2×)Exo 12:3 (2×)Exo 12:4 (2×)Exo 12:5Exo 13:13Exo 22:1(21:37) (2×)Exo 22:4(3)Exo 22:9(8)Exo 22:10(9)Exo 34:19

What scholars say about seh

The standard lexica treat שֶׂה as monosemous: a nomen unitatis for a single small-cattle animal drawn from the צֹאן, neutral as to species. BDB glosses it "one of a flock, a sheep or goat"; HALOT, "a single animal from a flock of sheep or goats, a lamb or kid"; DCH similarly. Deuteronomy 14:4 (שֵׂה כְשָׂבִים וְשֵׂה עִזִּים) and Exodus 12:5 are the decisive evidence that the term itself does not specify sheep over goat, the species being marked by an added genitive or qualifier. The etymology is uncertain; relation to Akkadian and a proposed primitive bleating root are discussed in HALOT but not determinative. The cultic and legal density of the occurrences (Passover, the firstborn redemption of Exodus 13:13 and 34:19-20, restitution law in Exodus 22, sacrificial regulation in Leviticus) reflects usage, not distinct senses; the prophetic and psalmic flock imagery (Isaiah 53:7; Jeremiah 50:17; Ezekiel 34; Psalm 119:176) applies the same unit term metaphorically.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. שֶׂהlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. שֶׂהlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. שֶׂהlexicon

All attested forms of שֶׂה

c s absolute

שֶׂה, שֶּׂה

Gen 30:32, Gen 30:32, Exo 12:3, Exo 12:3, Exo 12:5, Exo 13:13, Exo 22:1, Exo 22:4

c s construct

שֵׂה

Deu 14:4, Deu 14:4, Isa 43:23

c s construct

שְׂיֵהוּ, שֵׂיוֹ

1Sa 14:34, Deu 22:1