שׁוּר
Shur
BDB lists 2 entries for ‘Shur’ 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
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Proper
- A name of a specific person, place, or people (e.g. Abraham, Zion, Israel).
Every verse where H7793 appears — 6 distinct verses across 3 books. 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.
Genesis 3 verses
- Genesis 16:7 שֽׁוּר n Proper The angel of Yahweh found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.
- Genesis 20:1 שׁ֑וּר n Proper Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foriegner in Gerar.
- Genesis 25:18 שׁ֗וּר n Proper They lived from Havilah to Shur that is before Egypt, as you go toward Assyria. He lived opposite all his relatives.
Exodus 1 verse
1 Samuel 2 verses
- 1 Samuel 15:7 שׁ֔וּר n Proper Saul struck the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, that is before Egypt.
- 1 Samuel 27:8 שׁ֖וּרָ/ה n Proper + sfx dem David and his men went up, and made a raid on the Geshurites, and the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for those [nations] were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as you go to Shur, even to the land of Egypt.
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.
At its core, שור (Shûwr) means “Shur.” Its uses cluster heavily in Genesis (50% of all occurrences). Spanning 6 verses in 3 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. It first appears in Genesis 16:7. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7793 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 →
- 6
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 6 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #3,040
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 3,040 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 6 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 6 distinct verses.
- Torah (Pentateuch) 4 verses · 67%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 verses · 33%
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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 5 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Shur 6×
- American Standard Version†: Shur 6×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Shur 5×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Shur 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7793 across 6† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7793 across 6† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H7793 across 6† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears 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 H7793 across 6† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
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 5 senses and sub-senses 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.
שור I
Qal
- Impf. 2 fs. וַתָּשֻׁרִי לַמֶּלֶךְ בַּשֶּׁמֶן Is 57:9 and thou (the apostate faction) didst journey to (the god) Melek with (thine) oil, i.e. bring, offer it (Che Marti read וַתָּסֻכִי). Pt. fpl. שָׁרוֹתַיִךְ Ez 27:25 ships of Tarshish were thy travellers (i.e. traders), but improbable; Krae שָׁרוֹת לָךְ בְּ journey for thee with thy wares; Toy רֹכְלַיִךְ בְּ; Co שֵֽׁרְתוּךְ served thee. e.g. Isaiah 57:9
שור II behold, regard (especially Jb)
Qal
- Impf. 3 ms. יָשׁוּר Je 5:26, sf. יְשׁוּרֶנּוּ Jb 34:29, etc.; Imv. ms. שׁוּר Jb 35:5;— e.g. Jeremiah 5:26
- 1. behold, c. acc. pers. Nu 23:9; 24:17 (poems in JE, ‖ רָאָה), לֹא תְּשׁוּרֵנִי, subj. eye, Jb 24:15, and (= I shall not exist) 7:8, cf. 20:9 (subj. מְקוֹמוֹ), 17:15; God object 34:29; 35:14; look, gaze, abs., מִן loc. Ct 4:8. e.g. Numbers 23:9
- 2. regard with watchful care (subj. י׳) Ho 14:9; so, = notice, Jb 35:13; regard, observe, acc. rei, God’s word Jb 33:14 (Hi De Da al.), so, (reading 2 ms.), Siegf Bu; Du יְשִׁיבֶנָּה he (God) retracts it not. e.g. Hosea 14:9
- 3. watch stealthily, lie in wait, כְּנָמֵר עַל־דֶּרֶךְ אָשׁוּר Ho 13:7 (subj. י׳; Meinh Marti אֶשְׁקֹד; 𝔊 𝔖 𝔙 We Now al. אַשּׁוּר), Je 5:26 (subj. wicked).—Jb 33:27 v. שׁיר. e.g. Hosea 13:7
שור III dub. word, only pl. sf. וַתַּבֵּט עֵינִי בְּשׁוּרָ֑י ψ 92
שור IV [m.] wall (Aramaic שׁוּרָא, ܫܽܘܪܳܐ )
שור V loc. SW. of Palestine, on E. border of Egypt
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
I. vb. perhaps travel, journey (Assyrian šâru, pass along, take one’s way, Arabic سَارَ (ى) go, pass along, journey, سَيَّارَةٌ caravan, Palm. שירתא Lzb 375 SAC113 Cooke271, Syriac ܫܝܳܪܬܳܐ (? Arabic loan-wd., Frä 180));—
II. vb. behold, regard (especially Jb);—
III. dub. word, only pl. sf. וַתַּבֵּט עֵינִי בְּשׁוּרָ֑י ψ 92:12, read בְּשׁוֹרְרָ֑י (Bae al.) v. foll.
IV. n.[m.] wall (Aramaic שׁוּרָא, ܫܽܘܪܳܐ );—Gn 49:22 (poem in J), 2 S 22:30 = ψ 18:30; pl. sf. שׁוּרֹתָם Jb 24:11 their walls De Di De, cf. Bu; but v. שׁוּרָה infra; שָׁרוֹתֶיהָ Je 5:10 = its walls, according to Vrss AV RV Gf Gie, read then שֻׁ׳, but v. id.
V. n.pr.loc. SW. of Palestine, on E. border of Egypt;—Gn 16:7 (J; דֶּרֶךְ שׁ׳), 20:1 (E), towards Egypt 25:18 (J), 1 S 15:7, שׁ֫וּרָה 27:8; מִדְבַּר־שׁ׳ Ex 15:22 (J).—Often supposed to denote properly the ‘wall’ or line of fortresses, built by Egyptian Kings across isthmus of Suez; but dub.: cf. Dr Hast.DB Shur.
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from שור (shûwr) (H7791) — wall.
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.
שְׁוָורִים
- , pl. of שׁוֹר.
שְׁוַר
- , v. שְׁוַור, שַׁוָּור.
שׁוּר I
- to sing; Polel שׁוֹרֵר, v. שִׁיר I.
שׁוּר II
- מִדְבַּר ש׳ desert of Shur (caravan road), v. כּוּב, a. next. w.
שׁוּר III
- 1. wall, fortification, stronghold. Gen. R. s. 98 (ref. to שׁוֹר, Gen. XLIX, 6; v. Targ. O. a. Y. 1) עקרתון שׁוּרָן של גרים you have uprooted the stronghold (reliance) of proselytes (by dealing faithlessly with the Shechemites); בשביל … עקרתם שורן וכ׳ in order to gratify your passion, you have uprooted &c. e.g. Genesis 49:6
- 2. protected habitation, civilized condition (cmp. יִשּׁוּב), opp. מדבר. Ex. R. s. 24 (play on מדבר שור, Ex. XV, 22) עד שלא יצאו … נעשה העולם ש׳ before Israel went out of Egypt, the world was a desert (lawless); when they went forth, the world became civilized; עד שלא קיבלו … ש׳ before Israel received the Law, the world was a desert; when they received it, the world became &c. e.g. Exodus 15:22
שׁוּר
- 1. wall, fortification. Targ. O. Gen. XLIX, 6 (Y. I שׁוֹר; v. preced.). Targ. Lam. II, 8. Targ. Prov. XXV, 28; a. fr.—Lam. R. to II, 8 (expl. חל וחומה, ib.) ש׳ ובר ש׳ the large circumvallation and the smaller wall; Pes. 86ᵃ; Y. ib. VII, 35ᵇ bot. Y. B. Bath. II, 13ᵇ bot. ש׳ דחמץ the wall of Emesa; M.M. Kat. 26ᵃ ש׳ דלודקיא the wall of Laodicea; a. fr.—Pl. שׁוּרִין, שׁוּרַיָּא. Targ. Ex. XIV, 22. Targ. II Kings XXV, 4. Targ. O. Deut. XXVIII, 52; a. fr.
- 2. (v. שׁוּרָה) line, road. Y. Keth. VII, 31ᶜ, v. פּוּתְיָא.—V. שׁוּרְתָא.
שׁוֹר I
- , Fl. to Levy Talm. Dict. IV, p. 680) ox. B. Kam. 65ᵇ ש׳ בן יומו קרוי ש׳ an ox on the day of his birth is called shor (by ref. to Lev. XXII, 27). Ib. I, 1 הש׳ damage done by an ox (Ex. XXI, 28; XXII, 4). Ib. IV, 7 ש׳ המדבר the ox of the desert (aurochs, being ownerless). Kil. VIII, 6; Ḥull. 80ᵃ בר(ה) ש׳ wild ox, aurochs; a. fr.—Erub. 53ᵇ (in enigmatic speech) ש׳ משפט (not במשפט) = תור דין = תְּרָדִין, v. תְּרָדָא I.—Pl. שְׁוָורִים, שְׁוָורִין, שְׁוָר׳. Gen. R. s. 75 (ref. to Gen. XXXII, 6) משור אחד יצאו ש׳ הרבה from the one ox (which I originally possessed) many oxen went forth. B. Kam. III, 8. Y. Gitt. IX, 46ᵈ bot.; a. fr. e.g. Leviticus 22:27
שׁוֹר II
- chain, cord, esp. umbilical cord. Lev. R. s. 5 ואני חותכת את שׁוֹרְךָ and I shall cut thy umbilical cord (with which thou art attached to me); Yalk. Job 908 טבורך).
שִׁיר I
- denom. of next w.) to sing. Ber. 14ᵇ ושַׁרְנוּ לך and we sang (praises) unto thee. Snh. 91ᵇ (ref. to Ex. XV, 1) שָׁר לא נאמר אלא יָשִׁיר it does not read, ‘he sang’; but, ‘he shall sing’; Mekh. B’shall., Shir., s. 1; a. e. e.g. Exodus 15:1
- ) שׁוֹרֵר same. Num. R. s. 3 (play on ב̇כ̇וש̇ר̇ות, Ps. LXVIII, 7) אותן שהיו ב̇וכ̇ין … מְ֗ש̇ו̇רְ֗רִין עכשיו those who formerly wept …, were now singing. Ib. ועבד מְשׁוֹרֵר וכ׳ and the slave sings, because he is relieved &c. B. Bath. 120ᵃ מְשׁוֹרְרִים לפניה went singing (bridal songs) before her; a. fr.—[Midr. Till. to Ps. CXVI באין ושוררין, read: ושׁוֹרִין, v. שָׁרָה II.]—מְשׁוֹרֵר singer, esp. Temple singer (Levite). Arakh. 11ᵇ מ׳ ששיער ומשוער ששורר if one designated as a singer acts as gate-guard, or a gate-guard acts as singer; a. fr.—Pl. מְשׁוֹרְרִים, מְשׁוֹרְרִין. Ib. שאתה מן המ׳ וכ׳ for thou belongest to the singers, and not to the gate-guards; a. fr. e.g. Psalms 68:7
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 5 distinct written forms H7793 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| שׁ֑וּר | Noun, Proper | Exodus 15:22 | 2 |
| שׁ֔וּר | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 15:7 | 1 |
| שׁ֖וּרָ/ה | Noun, Proper | 1 Samuel 27:8 | 1 |
| שׁ֗וּר | Noun, Proper | Genesis 25:18 | 1 |
| שֽׁוּר | Noun, Proper | Genesis 16:7 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7793, 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.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Bible dictionary
Public-domain dictionary articles matched to this entry by name (Shur). A biblical name can be shared by more than one person or place, so an article may treat several.
Easton's Bible Dictionary · M. G. Easton, 1897
An enclosure; a wall, a part, probably, of the Arabian desert, on the north-eastern border of Egypt, giving its name to a wilderness extending from Egypt toward Philistia (Gen. 16:7; 20:1; 25:18; Ex. 15:22). The name was probably given to it from the wall (or shur) which the Egyptians built to defend their frontier on the north-east from the desert tribes. This wall or line of fortifications extended from Pelusium to Heliopolis.
Smith's Bible Dictionary · William Smith, 1863
(a wall), a place just without the eastern border of Egypt. Shur is first mentioned in the narrative of Haggar's flight from Sarah. (Genesis 16:7) Abraham afterward "dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar." (Genesis 20:1) It is also called Ethami. The wilderness of Shur was entered in the Israelites after they had crossed the Red Sea. (Exodus 15:22,23) It was also called the wilderness of Etham. (Numbers 33:8) Shur may have been a territory town east of the ancient head of the Red Sea; and from its being spoken of as a limit, it was probably the last Arabian town before entering Egypt.
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary · Roswell D. Hitchcock, 1869
wall; ox; that beholds
Classic public-domain reference works; full attribution on Sources.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 6 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 6 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
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.
