שָׁאַב
to draw
‘to draw’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H7579 appears in the Book of Deuteronomy — 1 distinct verse. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Deuteronomy
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
שאב (shâʼab) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to draw.” It first appears in Genesis 24:11. With 18 verses in 9 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. It concentrates in Genesis, which alone accounts for 39% of its uses. Not a single-sense word: explore its full sense range. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7579 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 18
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 18 distinct verses.
- 9 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 9 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,563
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,563 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 18 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 18 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 8 verses · 44%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 8 verses · 44%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 11%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Draw 6×, Drew 4×, Drawers 3×
- American Standard Version: Draw 5×, Drew 5×, Drawers 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Draw 4×, Draw water 4×, Carriers 3×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Draw 5×, Draw water 3×, Drawers of 3×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7579 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7579 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H7579 across 19 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7579 across 23 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 7 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 1 sense the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
Qal
- Pf. 2 mpl. consec. וּשְׁאַבְהֶּם Is 12:3; Impf. 3 fs. וַתִּשְׁאַב Gn 24:20, -אָ֑ב v 45; 1 s. אֶשְׁאָ֑ב v 19, 44; 3 mpl. יִשְׁאֲבוּן Ru 2:9, וַיִּשְׁאֲבוּ 1 S 7:6 + 2 times; Imv. fs. שַׁאֲבִי Na 3:14; Pt. ms. שֹׁאֵב Dt 29:10, pl. cstr. שֹׁאֲבֵי Jos 9:21, 23, 27; fpl. הַשֹּׁאֲבֹת Gn 24:11;—draw water, c. acc. מַיִם Gn 24:13 (J), 1 S 7:6; 9:11, + מִן of source 2 S 23:16 = 1 Ch 11:8, Is 12:3 (fig.); מֵי מָצוֹר שׁ׳ לָךְ Na 3:14; מַיִם om. Gn 24:20, 43, 45 and (+ ל of animals) v 19, 20, 41 (all J); c. acc. אֲשֶׁר Ru 2:9 drink of that which the young men draw; Pt. fpl. Gn 24:11 the water-drawing women; m. שֹׁאֵב מֵימֶיךָ Dt 29:10 (servile labour, ‖ חֹטֵב עֵצֶיךָ), so mpl. Jos 9:21, 23, 27 (P; all c. ל, and all ‖ חֹטְבֵי עֵצִים). e.g. Isaiah 12:3
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
vb. draw (water) (NH id., also attract; Aramaic שְׁאֵיב, of magnet; Arabic سَأَبَ be satisfied with drinking);—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
אַב־
- a prefix of words of Greek origin answering to αὐ-, au-, e.g. אבטומטוס = αὐτόματος; or to εὐ, e.g. אבגינוס = εὐγενής.
אָב I
- (Assyr. A-bu, Schr. K. A. T., p. 247) Ab, the fifth month of the Jewish calendar (of thirty days) beginning between the eighth of July and the seventh of August, and ending between the sixth of August and the fifth of September. R. Hash. I, 3, על אב וכ׳ for announcing the beginning of Ab messengers are sent out, for the sake of the fast. Ib. 18ᵇ ט׳ באב the ninth of Ab, anniversary of Temple destruction. Taan. IV, 6 משנכנס אב with the beginning of Ab. Ib. 29ᵇ לישתמיט מיניה באב let him try to be relieved of (the law-suit) in Ab. Meg. 5ᵇ; a. e.
אָב II
- , const. אֲבִי, אַב [embracer], father, ancestor, progenitor; teacher; chief, leader; author, originator. Ex. R. s. 46 end המגדל אב the educator is the real father. Lev. R. s. 1 אבי החכמה וכ׳, the father of all wisdom, … the father of prophets. Y. Ned. V, 39ᵇ; a. fr.—אַב בית דין (abbr. אב"ד) president of the Court (Great Sanhedrin), next in dignity to the Nassi. Taan. II, 1; a. fr.—Metaph. origin, cause. Num. R. s. 10 (play on אֲבוֹי, Prov. XXIII, 29) א׳ אוי the cause of woe (sin).—אב מלאכה (for which also עיקר) one of the chief labors forbidden on the Sabbath, opp. תולדה a labor the prohibition of which is based on the ground of its being a species of the former, or derived from the former. Sabb. VII, 1 sq.; a. fr.—[Y. Sabb. II, 5ᵃ, אב שלה, sub. מלאכה.]—אב הטומאה one of the original or direct causes of levitical uncleanness, opp. ולד (child) secondary cause. Toh. I, 5; a. fr.—א׳ הנזק v. Pl.—בנין א׳ creation of a class, i.e. a conclusion, by analogy, from a case explicitly stated in the bibl. law on all similar cases not specified in detail. Sifra introd.—Ib. K’doshim, end, ch. 11 (ref. to Lev. XX, 27) זה ב׳ א׳ לכל דמיהם בם this forms the rule for all cases in which the Bible uses the word d’mēhem bam (that the penalty is stoning to death); a. fr.; v. also בֵּית אב.—Pl. אָבוֹת־, const. אֲבוֹת, e.g. Proverbs 23:29
- 1. fathers, ancestors, patriarchs &c. Ber. 26ᵇ prayers א׳ תקנום have been instituted by the Patriarchs; a. fr.—אבות בתי דינין, v. supra. Ḥag. II, 2.—בת א׳ a woman of noble descent. Num. R. s. 1; a. e.—Metaph. principal, chief א׳ מלאכות, v. supra. א׳ הטומא׳ Kel. I, 1; v. supra.—א׳ נזיקין (sing. אב הנזק) the chief actionable injuries or damages, from which the subordinate are deduced (תולדות). B. Kam. I, 1; a. e.
- 2. Aboth, the first section of the Prayer of Benedictions (v. תְּפִלָּה), so called because it alludes to the Patriarchs. R. Hash. IV, 5; a. fr.
- 3. Aboth, name of a treatise of the Mishnah, containing sayings of Talmudic authorities and belonging to the fourth section, נזיקין, of the Mishnah collection (משניות); also styled פִּרְקֵי א׳ a. מְסֶכֶת א׳. A similar collection of a later date is contained in Talmud Babli editions, named א׳ דרבי נתן Aboth d’Rabbi Nathan. [Y. Yoma VIII, 44ᵈ top אב בית נפש v. אֲבֵידָה.]
אָב II ²
- ch., v. אַבָּא
אֵב
- swelling, spreading, whence
- 1. the young shoots of a tree, opp. to the branches growing directly from the trunk. B. Kam. 81ᵃ אִיבּוֹ של אילן ed. (Ar. a. Ms. חובו, v. חוֹב II, cmp. Rashi a. l.). [Y. Erub. III, 21ᵃ top איבו; Y. Succ. II, 53ᵃ צידו.]
- 2. pl. אִבִּין, אִיבִּין state of growth, development. Ḥull. 58ᵃ cascuta which became wormy באִבֶּיהָ during its growth. Ib. 127ᵇ figs which shrunk באִבֵּיהֶן during development. Y. Sabb. VII, 10ᶜ bot. he who presses olives מאִבֵּיהֶן from where they grow (before they are ripe to be taken off). [Tosef. Maasr. I, 4 איבין אדומים, Var. אובין, read אוּגִין, v. אוֹג.] Ib. 5 they differ על האיבין concerning the plants in their growing state (between ripening [גמר] and blossoming [הנץ]; Var. אוֹנין incorr.); cmp. יָבַן. Ch. v. אִיבָּא I.
שָׁאַב
- (b. h.) to draw water; to attract, absorb, imbibe. Mikv. II, 6 שלא נתכוין לִשְׁאוֹב for he had no intention to draw water. Sabb. II, 4 בשביל שתהא שׁוֹאֶבֶת in order that it (the wick) be soaked. Gen. R. s. 14 בשעה … ושואבת וכ׳ while man is asleep, the soul rises and imbibes life for him from above. Gen. R. s. 70 (ref. to Gen. XXIX, 2) משם היו שׁוֹאֲבִים רוח וכ׳ from there (Zion) did they (the pilgrims) draw holy inspiration. Ib. s. 42 (play on ש̇נא̇ב̇, Gen. XIV, 2) שהיה שׁוֹא̇ב̇ ממון he absorbed (was greedy after) money; a. fr.—אבן שואבת, v. אֶבֶן.—בית השואבה, v. שׁוֹאֵבָה.—Part. pass. שָׁאוּב; f. שְׁאוּבָה; pl. שְׁאוּבִים, שְׁאוּבִין; שְׁאוּבוֹת.—מים ש׳ drawn water, contrad. to מים חיים well water. Tosef. Mikv. II, 9 אחד שאוב ואחד כשר one reservoir containing drawn water (and therefore unfit for immersion), and one that was fit. Mikv. VI, 3 והש׳ מן הצד and the cavity containing drawn water was located sideways. Sabb. 15ᵃ שלשה לוגין מים ש׳ וכ׳ three Logs of drawn water in a bath make it unfit for immersion. Mikv. VII, 6 המים שבתוכן ש׳ the water therein is considered as drawn (is unfit); a. fr. e.g. Genesis 29:2
שְׁאֵב
- —Part. שָׁאֵב, שָׁיֵיב; f. שָׁאֵיבָא, שָׁאֵיבְתָּא, שָׁיְיבָא; pl. שְׁאִיבֵי, שָׁיְיבֵי &c. Targ. I Chr. XX, 2 אבנא ש׳ = h. אבן שׁוֹאֶבֶת, v. אֶבֶן; Targ. II Chr. XXIII, 11 אבן טבא ושייבא (ed. Lag. only אבן טבא).—Ḥull. 93ᵇ מִשְׁאַב שְׁאִיבֵי ליה they (the glowing coals) draw (the blood out of the veins), opp. צְמַת; Pes. 74ᵇ. Yoma 69ᵇ אברא משאב שאיב קלא lead absorbs (deadens) the sound; Snh. 64ᵃ דשָׁיֵיב ed. Sonc. (ed. דשָׁיֵיף; Ms. M. דשאיף, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 70); a. fr.
שָׁאָב
- Shaab (Saab), in Galilee (v. Jos. B. J. III, 7; 21). Lev. R. s. 20; a. fr.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 16 distinct written forms H7579 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| וַ/יִּֽשְׁאֲבוּ | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | 1 Chronicles 11:18 | 3 |
| וְ/שֹֽׁאֲבֵי | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Joshua 9:21 | 2 |
| אֶשְׁאָ֑ב | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Genesis 24:44 | 1 |
| אֶשְׁאָ֔ב | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Genesis 24:19 | 1 |
| הַ/שֹּׁאֲבֹֽת | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Feminine, Plural, Absolute | Genesis 24:11 | 1 |
| וְ/שֹׁ֥אֲבֵי | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Joshua 9:27 | 1 |
| וַ/תִּשְׁאַ֖ב | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Genesis 24:20 | 1 |
| וַ/תִּשְׁאָ֑ב | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Genesis 24:45 | 1 |
| וּ/שְׁאַבְתֶּם | Verb, Qal, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Isaiah 12:3 | 1 |
| יִשְׁאֲב֖וּ/ן | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Ruth 2:9 | 1 |
| לִ/שְׁאֹ֑ב | Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct | Genesis 24:20 | 1 |
| לִ/שְׁאֹ֔ב | Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct | Genesis 24:43 | 1 |
| לִ/שְׁאֹ֣ב | Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct | 1 Samuel 9:11 | 1 |
| לִ/שְׁאֹ֥ב | Verb, Qal, Infinitive Construct | Genesis 24:13 | 1 |
| שַֽׁאֲבִי | Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular | Nahum 3:14 | 1 |
| שֹׁאֵ֥ב | Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Construct | Deuteronomy 29:11 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7579, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 18 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 18 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 24:11
- Deuteronomy 29:11
- Joshua 9:21
- Ruth 2:9
- 1 Samuel 7:6
- 2 Samuel 23:16
- 1 Chronicles 11:18
- Isaiah 12:3
- Nahum 3:14
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
