StrongerBible

shaḥah

שָׁחָה

HebrewH7812“worship, bow down, ...”

Appears 172 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 18:2Gen 19:1Gen 22:5Gen 23:7Gen 23:12Gen 24:26Gen 24:48Gen 24:52Gen 27:29 (2×)Gen 33:3Gen 33:6Gen 33:7 (2×)Gen 37:7Gen 37:9Gen 37:10Gen 42:6Gen 43:26Gen 43:28Gen 47:31Gen 48:12Gen 49:8Exo 4:31Exo 11:8Exo 12:27Exo 18:7Exo 20:5Exo 23:24Exo 24:1Exo 32:8Exo 33:10Exo 34:8Exo 34:14Lev 26:1Num 22:31Num 25:2Deu 4:19Deu 5:9Deu 8:19Deu 11:16Deu 17:3Deu 26:10Deu 29:26(25)Deu 30:17Jos 5:14Jos 23:7Jos 23:16Jdg 2:12Jdg 2:17Jdg 2:19Jdg 7:15
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeshah-KHAHverb

What shaḥah means

to bow down low before someone, lowering the body to the ground in homage or worship

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

The picture behind this word is physical: a person sinks down, often all the way to the ground, and lays the body before someone they treat as greater. Its signature scene is a body kneeling, the head going down, the face touching the earth. The verb names that posture, not the feeling behind it. The clearest proof is the moment when an army commander has to bow with his king in a pagan temple, leaning on his arm, and asks God's pardon in advance for the bodily act he cannot avoid (2 Kings 5:18): the same outward motion can be willing worship or an unwanted bow, and the word covers both.

That one gesture spans an enormous range, and the difference between its uses is not in the action but in who receives it.

  • When the one bowed to is another person, the act is courtesy and submission: a guest greeting a host, a brother before the brother who now holds power, a subject before a king.
  • When the one bowed to is the LORD, the same posture becomes worship, the body's confession that God alone is worthy.
  • And when it is aimed at other gods or their images, the Bible names it as the very thing it forbids, the honor that belongs to God given to something that is not God.

Because one word does the work of both ordinary respect and sacred worship, the surrounding words and the object of the bowing carry the weight. A reader has to watch who is being honored to know whether a verse describes good manners, true devotion, or idolatry. The same bodily act runs from Abraham bowing to the merchants he buys a grave from, through David's court, to the closing visions of the prophets where every nation finally comes to bow before God alone.

Nuances

1ato bow before another person as an act of respect, greeting, or submission
Gen 23:7Gen 23:12Gen 33:3Gen 42:6Gen 43:26Gen 43:28Rut 2:101Sa 24:8(9)1Sa 25:231Sa 25:412Sa 9:62Sa 9:8
1bto bow down in worship of the LORD
TranslatabilityApproximate
Gen 22:5Gen 24:26Gen 24:48Gen 24:52Exo 4:31Exo 12:27Exo 34:82Ch 7:32Ch 29:28Neh 8:6Neh 9:3Psa 5:7(8)
1cto bow down in worship of other gods or idols, the act the LORD forbids
Exo 20:5Exo 23:24Exo 32:8Exo 34:14Deu 5:9Deu 8:19Deu 11:16Deu 30:17Jos 23:7Jos 23:161Ki 9:61Ki 11:33
1dto be bowed low physically, sunk down or made to stoop
Pro 12:25Isa 51:23

What scholars say about shaḥah

The standard lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) and the major theological dictionaries (TDOT, TLOT) treat this as a single verb for laying the body low, ranging from courteous homage before people to worship of God or of idols, with the basic sense being the physical posture and the abstract sense of honor or worship a derived extension. Gruber's study of nonverbal communication is the standard analysis of the bodily act, and he cites Naaman's involuntary bow (2 Kings 5:18) to show the verb names a posture rather than an inner disposition. A long-running grammatical debate concerns the form of the word: it was traditionally parsed as a reflexive of a rare root sh-ch-h, but after the Ugaritic texts (Albright 1932) most scholars reclassified the dominant biblical form (hishtachavah) as a fossilized causative-reflexive of the root ch-w-h, the only Hebrew survival of an old Northwest Semitic pattern; HALOT, Gesenius (18th ed.), DCH, TDOT, and the Joüon-Muraoka grammar all follow this. Emerton (1977), supported in part by Davies, defended the older analysis, and Kreuzer (1985) accepted the new form but proposed a different underlying root; Cohen (2008) gives the most thorough recent defense of the consensus on the strength of the apocopated form way-yishtachu. On the theology, Childs, Tigay, Propp, Weinfeld, and Moberly emphasize that the Decalogue forbids the verbal pair bowing-and-serving (with abad), so that a bare social bow violates nothing while bowing coupled with sacrifice and cult is what the commandment bans; Preuss (TDOT) and Stähli (TLOT) stress that the word is in itself neutral and takes its weight from its object.

Where scholars disagree about shaḥah

How to explain the grammatical form of the common bowing word (hishtachavah): whether it is a reflexive form of a rare root meaning to bow (sh-ch-h) or a fossilized causative-reflexive of a separate root (ch-w-h), the lone Hebrew survival of an old Northwest Semitic pattern. The meaning is not in question; the dispute is about word formation, not sense.

  • majorityIt is a fossilized causative-reflexive of the root ch-w-h, based on matching forms in Ugaritic and on the shortened form way-yishtachu; this is the modern majority view.; HALOT, s.v. חוה; W. F. Albright, "The North-Canaanite Epic of ʾAlʾêyân Baʿal and Môt," JPOS 12 (1932): 185-208; Ch. Cohen, "The Saga of a Unique Verb in Biblical Hebrew and Ugaritic," in Birkat Shalom (2008), 323-39
  • minorityIt is a reflexive of a Hebrew root sh-ch-h meaning to bow; the proposed Ugaritic pattern is itself rare and the comparison strained, so the older analysis remains defensible.; J. A. Emerton, "The Etymology of hištaḥǎwāh," OTS 20 (1977): 41-55; BDB, s.v. שׁחה
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. חוה / שׁחהlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. שׁחהlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. שׁחהlexicon
  • H. D. Preuss, "חוה ḥwh; הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה hištaḥawāh," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) 4:248-56dictionary
  • H.-P. Stähli, "חוה ḥwh hišt. to bow down," in Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (TLOT) 1:398-400dictionary
  • M. I. Gruber, Aspects of Nonverbal Communication in the Ancient Near East, Studia Pohl 12 (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1980), 90-123monograph
  • J. A. Emerton, "The Etymology of hištaḥǎwāh," in Instruction and Interpretation, OTS 20 (Leiden: Brill, 1977), 41-55article
  • Ch. Cohen, "The Saga of a Unique Verb in Biblical Hebrew and Ugaritic: השתחוה 'to Bow Down'," in Birkat Shalom (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2008), 323-39article

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of שָׁחָה

hishtaphel consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ, וַיִּשְׁתָּחוּ, וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

Gen 18:2, Gen 19:1, Gen 23:7, Gen 23:12, Gen 24:26, Gen 24:52, Gen 33:3, Gen 47:31

hishtaphel consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ, וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ, וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוֻּ

Gen 33:7, Gen 33:7, Gen 42:6, Gen 43:26, Exo 32:8, Jdg 2:12, Jdg 2:17, 1Sa 1:19

hishtaphel infinitive-construct construct

הִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת, הִשְׁתַּחֲוָיָתִ

Gen 37:10, Lev 26:1, Jdg 2:19, 1Sa 1:3, 1Sa 2:36, 2Sa 15:5, 2Ki 5:18, 2Ch 20:18

hishtaphel conjunctive-imperfect 3mp

וְיִשְׁתַּחֲווּ, וְיִשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ

Gen 27:29, Psa 22:27, Psa 72:11, Psa 86:9, Zep 2:11, Gen 27:29, Isa 49:7

hishtaphel consecutive-imperfect 3fs

וַתִּשְׁתַּחוּ, וַתִּשְׁתָּחוּ

Rut 2:10, 1Sa 25:23, 1Sa 25:41, 1Ki 1:16, 1Ki 1:31, 2Ki 4:37, 2Sa 14:4

hithpael imperfect 2mp

תִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ

Jos 23:7, 2Ki 17:35, 2Ki 17:36, 2Ki 18:22, 2Ch 32:12, Isa 36:7

hithpael imperfect 2ms

תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה, תִשְׁתַּחְוֶה

Exo 23:24, Exo 34:14, Deu 5:9, Psa 81:9, Mic 5:13, Exo 20:5

hithpael imperfect 3mp

יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ, יִשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ

Psa 66:4, Isa 2:8, Isa 49:23, Gen 49:8, Isa 45:14, Isa 46:6

hithpael participle m p absolute

מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים, מִּשְׁתַּחֲוִים, מִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתֶם

Gen 37:9, 2Ch 29:28, Neh 9:6, Zep 1:5, Zep 1:5, Ezk 8:16

hishtaphel consecutive-perfect 2mp

וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתֶם

Exo 24:1, Deu 11:16, Jos 23:16, 1Ki 9:6, 2Ch 7:19

hishtaphel consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְהִשְׁתַּחֲווּ, וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ

Isa 27:13, Isa 60:14, Ezk 46:3, Exo 11:8, Exo 33:10

hishtaphel consecutive-perfect 2ms

וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתָ

Deu 4:19, Deu 8:19, Deu 26:10, Deu 30:17

hithpael imperative 2mp

הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ

1Ch 16:29, Psa 29:2, Psa 96:9, Psa 97:7

hithpael imperfect 3ms

יִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

2Sa 15:32, 2Ch 25:14, Est 3:2

hishtaphel consecutive-imperfect 3fp

וַתִּשְׁתַּחֲוֶיןָ

Gen 33:6, Gen 37:7

hishtaphel consecutive-perfect 1cs

וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֵיתִי

1Sa 15:30, 2Ki 5:18

hishtaphel imperative 2mp

הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ

Psa 99:5, Psa 99:9

hishtaphel participle m p absolute

מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים

Neh 9:3, Est 3:2

hithpael imperfect 1cp

נִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

Psa 95:6, Psa 132:7

hithpael imperfect 1cs

אֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

Psa 5:7, Psa 138:2

hithpael participle m s absolute

מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

2Ki 19:37, Isa 37:38

hiphil imperfect 3ms

יַשְׁחֶ

Pro 12:25

hishtaphel conjunctive-imperfect 1cp

וְנִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

Gen 22:5

hishtaphel conjunctive-imperfect 1cs

וְאֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

1Sa 15:25

hishtaphel conjunctive-imperfect 3ms

וְיִשְׁתַּחוּ

Isa 44:17

hishtaphel consecutive-imperfect 1cs

וָאֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

Gen 24:48

hishtaphel consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְהִשְׁתַּחֲוָה

Ezk 46:2

hishtaphel imperative 2fs

הִשְׁתַּחֲוִי

Psa 45:11

hishtaphel participle m s absolute

מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה

Est 3:5

hithpael perfect 1cs

הִשְׁתַּחֲוֵיתִי

2Sa 16:4

hithpael perfect 3cp

הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ

Jer 8:2

qal imperative 2fs

שְׁחִי

Isa 51:23