StrongerBible

shekhavah

שְׁכָבָה

HebrewH7902“emission of semen, layer, ...”

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 16:13Exo 16:14Lev 15:16Lev 15:17Lev 15:18Lev 15:32Lev 19:20Lev 22:4Num 5:13
Root family
Word studysheh-khah-VAHnoun

What shekhavah means

1

a man's emission of semen, and the act of intercourse that releases it, named in the fixed legal phrase "emission of seed"

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

The word is built from the ordinary verb for lying down (שָׁכַב), and its basic idea is something laid down. In the purity laws it never stands alone: it is always joined to the word for seed (זֶרַע), and the two work as one fixed expression, usually translated "emission of semen".

Two things can be in view, and the wording of each law tells a reader which:

  • Four laws speak of it going out from a man, or lying on a garment or a piece of leather, which is the semen itself as a substance.
  • Three speak of a man lying with a woman "an emission of seed", which is the act of intercourse named by what it releases.

What holds the two together is that Israel's priests were interested in the deposit rather than in the encounter. Naming the emission let them write rules that could be applied without anyone having to describe what happened: something left the body, so a wash and a wait until evening follow. In Leviticus 15 that is an ordinary, blameless matter, and a married couple falls under the same simple rule as anyone else. Only where the law turns to who a man may not approach, as in Leviticus 19:20 and Numbers 5:13, does the same wording carry a charge with it.

A sister noun from the same root, שְׁכֹבֶת, covers nearly the same ground when a law wants to pin the emission on one particular man. Numbers 5 uses this word in verse 13 and that one in verse 20 for the very same suspected act.

Nuances

1athe semen itself, as a substance that leaves a man's body or lies on cloth and leather and makes what it touches unclean until evening
TranslatabilityApproximate
Lev 15:16Lev 15:17Lev 15:32Lev 22:4
1bthe act of intercourse itself, named by the emission that goes with it, in the wording "a man lies with her an emission of seed"
Lev 15:18Lev 19:20Num 5:13

Disputed

Whether the phrase "emission of seed" names the semen as a substance, the act of ejaculation during intercourse, or the two fused into a single legal idiom.

  • majorityThe phrase does both jobs: in some verses it names the emitted semen, in others the act of emission during intercourse, and the wording of each law decides which.; BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1012, s.v. שְׁכָבָה; David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew VIII, s.v. שְׁכָבָה I; Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann, eds., Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. שׁכב
  • minorityIt is one fused idiom for intercourse with emission, in which the act and the substance are not separated at all.; Jacob Milgrom, Numbers (JPS Torah Commentary, 1990), s.v. Numbers 5:13; Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus (NICOT, Eerdmans, 1979)
2

a layer of what has settled on the ground, used of the coating of dew around the camp

TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled

In the wilderness story the word names what the dew formed overnight: a thin coat lying on the ground all around the camp, which lifted in the morning and left the fine flakes behind that Israel gathered as food. Exodus uses it twice in two verses, once for the coat settling and once for it rising.

This is the plainest use of the word, and it shows where the meaning starts. From the verb for lying down comes a noun for anything laid down in a layer. That is also why the priestly laws could reach for the same word for a man's emission: both are something that has been put down and is now simply there. English hides the connection, since no translator would call the dew an emission or call semen a layer.

Exo 16:13Exo 16:14

What scholars say about shekhavah

The lexica treat שִׁכְבָה as a feminine noun from the root שׁכב, attested only in construct and in two settings: שִׁכְבַת־זֶרַע in Leviticus 15:16, 17, 18, 32; 19:20; 22:4 and Numbers 5:13, and שִׁכְבַת הַטַּל in Exodus 16:13, 14. BDB (1012) divides the entry into an act of lying, by metonymy the semen, and the layer of dew; HALOT glosses "outpouring; layer" and reads the phrase as "emission of semen"; DCH VIII files it as שְׁכָבָה I "layer, deposit ... emission (of semen)". TLOT (Jenni and Westermann, s.v. שׁכב) derives the noun from the sense "something laid down or deposited", hence the layer of dew and by metonymy the deposited semen, and labels the phrase a noun of action used concretely of the emitted semen (Leviticus 15:16, 17, 32; 22:4) and abstractly of ejaculation during intercourse (Leviticus 15:18; 19:20; Numbers 5:13); that division is the one followed in the senses above. TDOT XIV ("šākab", Beuken and Fleischer) lists שְׁכָבָה beside מִשְׁכָּב and שְׁכֹבֶת as the three nominal derivatives of the root and stresses that the emission idiom is confined to Priestly and Holiness legislation. Whitekettle (JSOT 49 [1991]: 31-45) makes שִׁכְבַת־זֶרַע the structural pivot of the reproductive-physiology system of Leviticus 15; Milgrom (Leviticus 1-16, AB 3, 1991) and Wenham (NICOT, 1979) read the phrase as intercourse-with-emission rather than as substance and act held apart; Levine (JPS Leviticus, 1989) renders it concretely as a layer of semen. Frymer-Kensky (VT 34 [1984]: 11-26) glosses the Numbers 5:13 occurrence as penetrative sex with ejaculation and ties the specificity to the shape of the ordeal that follows. The relation to the suffix-only שְׁכֹבֶת (H7903) is disputed: Lagarde and Barth, followed by BDB, HALOT and DCH, separate the two as distinct nominal patterns, while Gesenius (Tregelles) identified them as one word differently vocalized. Numbers 5 uses both nouns seven verses apart for the same offense, which Fishbane (HUCA 45 [1974]: 25-45) attributes to the joining of two independent legal formulations.

Where scholars disagree about shekhavah

Whether שִׁכְבָה and the suffix-only שְׁכֹבֶת are two distinct nouns from one root or a single noun in two vocalizations.

  • majorityTwo distinct feminine nouns built on different patterns from the same root, each restricted to its own set of forms.; BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1012; Koehler, Baumgartner, Stamm, HALOT IV, s.v. שְׁכֹבֶת; David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew VIII, s.v. שְׁכֹבֶת; Jakob Barth, Die Nominalbildung in den semitischen Sprachen, sect. 144
  • minorityOne word in two vocalizations, so the suffixed forms are simply this noun carrying a pronoun ending.; Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, trans. Tregelles, s.v. שְׁכֹבֶת

Sources

  • BDB, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 1012, s.v. שְׁכָבָהlexicon
  • Koehler, Baumgartner, Stamm, HALOT, s.v. שִׁכְבָהlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew VIII, s.v. שְׁכָבָה Ilexicon
  • Ernst Jenni and Claus Westermann, eds., Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. שׁכבtheological-dictionary
  • W. A. M. Beuken and G. Fleischer, šākab, in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament XIVtheological-dictionary
  • Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible 3, Doubleday, 1991)commentary
  • Baruch A. Levine, Leviticus (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989)commentary
  • Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus (NICOT, Eerdmans, 1979)commentary
  • Richard Whitekettle, Leviticus 15.18 Reconsidered: Chiasm, Spatial Structure and the Body, JSOT 49 (1991): 31-45article
  • Tikva Frymer-Kensky, The Strange Case of the Suspected Sotah (Numbers V 11-31), VT 34 (1984): 11-26article
  • Michael Fishbane, Accusations of Adultery: A Study of Law and Scribal Practice in Numbers 5:11-31, HUCA 45 (1974): 25-45article

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

All attested forms of שְׁכָבָה

f s construct

שִׁכְבַת

Exo 16:13, Exo 16:14, Lev 15:16, Lev 15:17, Lev 15:18, Lev 15:32, Lev 19:20, Lev 22:4