StrongerBible

sharats

שָׁרַץ

HebrewH8317swarm, teem, ...

Appears 14 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 1:20Gen 1:21Gen 7:21Gen 8:17Gen 9:7Exo 1:7Exo 8:3(7:28)Lev 11:29Lev 11:41Lev 11:42Lev 11:43Lev 11:46Psa 105:30Ezk 47:9
Root family
Word studyshah-RATSverb

What sharats means

to swarm: to teem with dense, moving masses of small living creatures, or to breed and multiply in such swarming numbers

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

The word paints a single vivid picture: life so abundant that it moves in restless, crowded masses. It is the word for water "swarming" with fish, ground crawling with insects, a river turned thick with frogs. The emphasis falls not on any one creature but on the sheer, overflowing density of them.

From that picture the word naturally extends to rapid reproduction. When Genesis tells the animals leaving the ark to "breed abundantly," or describes Israel multiplying in Egypt until the land was full of them, it reaches for this same word. Teeming presence and prolific breeding are two sides of one idea: numbers multiplying past counting.

Two neighbors sharpen the sense. Where רָמַשׂ pictures the low, gliding movement of small creatures, this word stresses how many of them there are; and where רָבָה is plain increase in number and פָּרָה is bearing offspring, this word adds the image of a swarm, increase you can watch churning and spreading across a place. The creatures it describes are named by the matching noun שֶׁרֶץ, the "swarming things."

Nuances

1ato teem or swarm: living creatures moving about in dense, restless masses
TranslatabilityDirect
Gen 1:20Gen 1:21Gen 7:21Exo 8:3(7:28)Lev 11:29Lev 11:41Lev 11:42Lev 11:43Lev 11:46Psa 105:30Ezk 47:9
1bto breed abundantly: to reproduce and spread in swarming numbers
Gen 8:17Gen 9:7Exo 1:7

What scholars say about sharats

The standard lexicons (BDB; HALOT) treat שׁרץ as a single verb meaning to swarm or teem, used both of the dense masses of small water and land creatures and, by extension, of the prolific breeding of animals and people. In Genesis 1:20 the form allows either an intransitive reading (the waters teem with life) or a factitive one (the waters bring forth swarms), an ambiguity commentators note without it altering the word's core sense. The action is embodied in the collective noun שֶׁרֶץ, the swarming creatures themselves, a category central to the priestly classification of animals in Leviticus 11. TDOT relates the verb's range to that concern with teeming, uncountable life.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. שׁרץlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. שׁרץlexicon
  • TDOT, s.v. שׁרץtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of שָׁרַץ

qal participle m s absolute

שֹּׁרֵץ

Gen 7:21, Lev 11:29, Lev 11:41, Lev 11:42, Lev 11:43

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיִּשְׁרְצוּ

Exo 1:7

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְשָׁרְצוּ

Gen 8:17

qal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְשָׁרַץ

Exo 8:3

qal imperative 2mp

שִׁרְצוּ

Gen 9:7

qal imperfect 3mp

יִשְׁרְצוּ

Gen 1:20

qal imperfect 3ms

יִשְׁרֹץ

Ezk 47:9

qal participle f s absolute

שֹּׁרֶצֶת

Lev 11:46

qal perfect 3cp

שָׁרְצוּ

Gen 1:21

qal perfect 3ms

שָׁרַץ

Psa 105:30