StrongerBible

shaḥaḥ

שָׁחַח

HebrewH7817“bow down, be brought low, ...”

Appears 21 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Job 9:13Job 38:40Psa 10:10Psa 35:14Psa 38:6(7)Psa 42:5(6)Psa 42:6(7)Psa 42:11(12)Psa 43:5Psa 107:39Pro 14:19Ecc 12:4Isa 2:9Isa 2:11Isa 2:17Isa 5:15Isa 25:12Isa 26:5Isa 29:4Isa 60:14Hab 3:6
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeshah-KHAKHverb

What shaḥaḥ means

to sink down low: to bow, stoop, crouch, or be brought low, whether a body, a spirit, or a standing structure collapsing toward the ground

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is one verb for every kind of downward collapse. A lion settles low in its den, a mourner stoops over a grave, a worn-down spirit folds in on itself, a proud wall topples into the dust: the Bible uses the same word for all of it. The core picture is not a chosen gesture but a sinking, a going-down.

Hebrew does not split the body from the inner life, so this verb slides easily from posture to state of soul. The bent back is not merely a sign of grief; it is the grief. When the poet of Psalms 42 and 43 asks his own soul why it is bowed down within him, the same collapse that bends a mourner's body has folded his inner self, and the question is itself an act of hope that turns him back toward God.

The verb carries its heaviest weight in Isaiah's oracles of the Day of the Lord, where the lofty are made low so that the Lord alone is exalted. Here the bowing is done to people, not by them: pride is forced down under judgment, the involuntary opposite of the willing bow people offer to their idols. The same word bends the everlasting hills before God and lays the fortified city in the dust.

One caution built into the word: this is not the ordinary verb for bowing in worship. That is a separate, far more common word. This rarer verb is about sinking and being brought low, and it is never a term for reverent worship.

Nuances

1ato crouch low, of an animal settling or lurking in its lair
Job 38:40Psa 10:10
1bto be bowed down in grief, the body stooped low in mourning
Psa 35:14Psa 38:6(7)
1cto bow low before someone in submission or homage
Pro 14:19Isa 60:14
1dto be brought low, humbled, laid in the dust, especially under God's judgment
Job 9:13Psa 107:39Isa 2:9Isa 2:11Isa 2:17Isa 5:15Isa 25:12Isa 26:5Hab 3:6
1eof the inner self, to be cast down, to sink into despair
Psa 42:5(6)Psa 42:6(7)Psa 42:11(12)Psa 43:5
1fto be brought low to a faint sound, to sink to a whisper
Ecc 12:4Isa 29:4

What scholars say about shaḥaḥ

All the major lexica agree on a single semantic field for שׁחח, a geminate root: BDB glosses it "bow, be bowed down, crouch," HALOT "to be low, sink down, bow," and DCH "be bowed down, bow low." TDOT and TLOT treat it within the broader humility vocabulary alongside שׁפל, with which it forms a near-hendiadys in Isaiah (וַיִּשַּׁח אָדָם וַיִּשְׁפַּל־אִישׁ, Isa 2:9; 5:15). The verb is attested about 21 times in four stems: Qal (concrete crouching, mourning, and homage, plus the punitive being-brought-low), Niphal (Isa 2:9; 5:15; the specialized attenuated-sound sense at Isa 29:4 and Eccl 12:4), Hiphil (only Isa 25:12; 26:5, with YHWH as agent), and the geminate reflexive Hithpolel (all four with נֶפֶשׁ as subject, three forming the refrain of Pss 42-43). The Septuagint renders it with a spread of verbs (κάμπτω, κύπτω, κατάγω, τήκω, ταράσσω) but most often ταπεινόω, the bridge into the Greek humility vocabulary. A large and lively etymological discussion concerns not this verb but the common worship verb הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה: since Albright (1932), on the strength of Ugaritic yštḥwy, the majority (HALOT, Gesenius 18, DCH, DULAT, Tropper) derive it from a biconsonantal חוה II rather than from שׁחה, against the traditional parsing retained by BDB and defended by Emerton (1977); Held argued שׁחה is nearly a ghost root, and Cohen (2005) and Kreuzer (1985) advanced further refinements. On every view, שׁחח (the geminate root treated here) is a distinct entry and is not the source of the worship verb.

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

  • Brown, Driver, Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1005, s.v. שָׁחַחlexicon
  • Koehler-Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1458, s.v. שׁחחlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 8, s.v. שׁחחlexicon
  • H.-J. Fabry and H.-J. Zobel, "שָׁפֵל," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testamenttheological-dictionary
  • Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 1-12 (Continental Commentary), 110, on Isa 2:9commentary
  • H. G. M. Williamson, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 1-5 (ICC), on Isa 2:6-22commentary
  • Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39 (Anchor Yale Bible 19), on Isa 2:6-22commentary
  • F.-L. Hossfeld and E. Zenger, Psalms 2 (Hermeneia), on Pss 42-43commentary
  • John Goldingay, Psalms, vol. 1 (Baker Commentary on the OT), ad loc.commentary
  • David J. A. Clines, Job 1-20 (WBC 17), on Job 9:13commentary
  • Choon-Leong Seow, Ecclesiastes (Anchor Yale Bible 18C), on Eccl 12:1-7commentary
  • Michael V. Fox, A Time to Tear Down and a Time to Build Up, 333-49monograph
  • Francis I. Andersen, Habakkuk (Anchor Yale Bible 25), on Hab 3:6commentary
  • J. A. Emerton, "The Etymology of hištaḥawāh," Oudtestamentische Studiën 20 (1977): 41-55article
  • William F. Albright, "The North-Canaanite Poems of Al-ʾÊyân Baʿal," Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society 12 (1932): 197 n. 41article
  • Josef Tropper, "Die hebräischen Verbalwurzeln šwḥ, šḥh, und šḥḥ," Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 4 (1991): 46-54article

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

All attested forms of שָׁחַח

hithpael imperfect 2fs

תִּשְׁתּוֹחֲחִי

Psa 42:5, Psa 42:11, Psa 43:5

qal perfect 3cp

שַׁחוּ, שָׁחֲחוּ

Pro 14:19, Hab 3:6, Job 9:13

hiphil perfect 3ms

הֵשַׁח

Isa 25:12, Isa 26:5

niphal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיִּשַּׁח

Isa 2:9, Isa 5:15

qal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְשַׁח

Isa 2:11, Isa 2:17

qal perfect 1cs

שַׁחוֹתִי, שַׁחֹתִי

Psa 35:14, Psa 38:6

hithpael imperfect 3fs

תִשְׁתּוֹחָח

Psa 42:6

niphal conjunctive-imperfect 3mp

וְיִשַּׁחוּ

Ecc 12:4

niphal imperfect 3fs

תִּשַּׁח

Isa 29:4

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיָּשֹׁחוּ

Psa 107:39

qal imperfect 3mp

יָשֹׁחוּ

Job 38:40

qal imperfect 3ms

יָשֹׁחַ

Psa 10:10

qal infinitive-construct construct

שְׁחוֹחַ

Isa 60:14