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שָׁחָה

to bow down

‘to bow down’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓

H7812 Strong's Hebrew
shâchâh Transliteration
/shaw-khaw'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 175 appearances

Compare with another word →

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.

The Hebrew verb שחה centers on the idea of “to bow down.” Its English rendering has broadened — “worship” classically, “bow down” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 166 verses — common. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 18:2. Across 3 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Hiphil). For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
bow down
Modern gloss
to bow down
Strong's 1890 agrees
Strong's 1890 and current BDB scholarship align on this entry's primary sense — a good signal that the gloss above is unambiguous and stable. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H7812 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 →

166
distinct verses
The word appears in 166 distinct verses.
25 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 25 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 18:2
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 18:2.
Zechariah 14:17
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 14:17.
#266
by frequency
Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 266 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 166 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 43 · 26%
  • Historical 73 · 44%
  • Wisdom 19 · 11%
  • Prophets 31 · 19%

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 166 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 84 verses · 51%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 43 verses · 26%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 39 verses · 23%

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: Worship 31×, Worshipped 27×, Bowed 23×
  • American Standard Version: Worshipped 26×, Worship 20×, Bowed 14×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Worship 29×, Bow down 22×, Worshiped 17×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Bow down 31×, He prostrated himself 13×, Bowed down 12×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H7812 across 172 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Worship” 31×
  • “Worshipped” 27×
  • “Bowed” 23×
  • “Bow down” 7×
  • “Shall worship” 5×
  • “Bowed down” 4×
  • “Did obeisance” 4×
  • “Have worshipped” 4×
  • “He bowed” 4×
  • “Made obeisance” 4×
  • “Thou shalt not bow down” 3×
  • “Worshippeth” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 38 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 H7812 across 172 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Worshipped” 26×
  • “Worship” 20×
  • “Bowed” 14×
  • “Did obeisance” 9×
  • “Them” 7×
  • “Bow down” 5×
  • “Me” 4×
  • “Bowed down” 3×
  • “Down” 3×
  • “He bowed” 3×
  • “Made obeisance” 3×
  • “Shall worship” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 47 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 H7812 across 171 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Worship” 29×
  • “Bow down” 22×
  • “Worshiped” 17×
  • “Bowed” 15×
  • “Bowed down” 11×
  • “Bow” 5×
  • “Homage” 4×
  • “Reverence” 4×
  • “Paid homage” 3×
  • “They worshiped” 3×
  • “Was worshiping” 3×
  • “You must worship” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 38 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H7812 across 193 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Bow down” 31×
  • “He prostrated himself” 13×
  • “Bowed down” 12×
  • “Worship” 10×
  • “He bowed down” 9×
  • “Prostrated himself” 8×
  • “And” 7×
  • “They bowed down” 7×
  • “You shall” 6×
  • “Prostrated themselves” 4×
  • “Will bow down” 4×
  • “Bowed” 3×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 29 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

Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses one or more reduplicated stems (the Pōlēl/Pilpēl type), which for hollow or geminate roots behave much like Piel — often intensive or iterative.

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.

Qal

  • bow down

Hiphil

  • . fig., anxiety depresses it

Hithpa‛lēl

  • 1. bow down, prostrate oneself, before a monarch or superior, in homage, etc.
  • 2. before God, in worship
  • 3. before other gods

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

[ שָׁחָה ] 172 vb. bow down

— 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

Part of speech: Verb TWOT: 2360


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.

שָׁחָה

  • , v. שחי

שחי

  • to curve; to bend, bow; to lower one’s self. Tosef. Ber. I, 9; Ber. 34ᵃ; Gen. R. s. 39, a. e., v. שָׁחַח. Pesik. Shek., p. 11ᵇ (ref. to Is. II, 9) יודע אני ששָׁחוּ … והָשְׁפַּלְתִּי אני והם I know that Israel lowered themselves by bowing to the calf, and I and they were humbled; Yalk. Ex. 386; Yalk. Is. 260; Tanḥ. Ki Thissa 4; Pesik. R. s. 10 אימתי שחו ונשפלו when was it that they bent and were lowered?; a. fr. e.g. Isaiah 2:9
    • to prostrate one’s self. Snh. VII, 6 (60ᵇ) המִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה he that prostrates himself (before an idol). Ib. 62ᵃ זיבח … וה׳ וכ׳ if a person sacrificed, burnt incense, offered libation, and prostrated himself, all in one act. Yoma 69ᵃ כיון שראה … וה׳ לפניו when he (king Alexander) saw Simon the righteous, he alighted from his chariot and threw himself down before him; מלך … יִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה וכ׳ should a great king like thee prostrate himself before this Jew?; 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 110 distinct written forms H7812 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/יִּשְׁתַּ֖חוּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 17:3 9
וַ/יִּשְׁתַּ֥חוּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Genesis 19:1 8
וְ/הִשְׁתַּחֲוִיתֶ֖ם Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Deuteronomy 11:16 5
וַ/יִּשְׁתַּ֧חוּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Chronicles 21:21 5
וַ/יִּשְׁתָּֽחוּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 34:8 5
וַ/תִּשְׁתַּ֖חוּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 Kings 1:16 5
וַ/יִּֽשְׁתַּחֲו֖וּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Chronicles 24:17 4
וַ/יִּשְׁתַּ֨חוּ֙ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 18:7 4
ו/ישתחו Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Genesis 43:28 3
וַ/יִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוּֽוּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Exodus 4:31 3
וַ/יִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוֽוּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Genesis 33:7 3
וַ/יִּשְׁתָּ֑חוּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Samuel 9:6 3
וּ/לְ/הִשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֣ת Verb, Hishtaphel, Infinitive Construct Jeremiah 13:10 3
לְ/הִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֖ת Verb, Hithpael, Infinitive Construct 2 Chronicles 20:18 3
תִשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֥ה Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 5:9 3
וַ/יִּשְׁתַּחֲו֥וּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Chronicles 7:22 2
הִשְׁתַּחֲו֥וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Chronicles 16:29 2
וַ/יִּֽשְׁתַּחֲו֛וּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Chronicles 29:20 2
וַ/יִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוּ֖וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Deuteronomy 29:26 2
וַ/יִּֽשְׁתַּחֲווּ֙ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 Samuel 1:19 2
וַ/יִּשְׁתַּֽחֲווּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Exodus 32:8 2
וַ/יִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Genesis 43:26 2
וַ/יִּשְׁתָּ֔חוּ Verb, Hithpael, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 44:15 2
לְ/הִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֔ת Verb, Hithpael, Infinitive Construct Isaiah 2:20 2
לְ/הִשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֣ת Verb, Hithpael, Infinitive Construct 1 Samuel 2:36 2
לְ/הִשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֥ת Verb, Hithpael, Infinitive Construct Genesis 37:10 2
מִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֜ה Verb, Hishtaphel, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 2 Kings 19:37 2
תִֽשְׁתַּחֲו֖וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Kings 17:36 2
תִּֽשְׁתַּחֲו֖וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Chronicles 32:12 2
אֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֥ה Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Psalms 5:7 1
אֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֨ה Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Psalms 138:2 1
בְּ/הִשְׁתַּחֲוָיָ֨תִ/י֙ Verb, Hishtaphel, Infinitive Construct 2 Kings 5:18 1
הִֽשְׁתַּחֲו֖וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Jeremiah 8:2 1
הִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֵ֔יתִי Verb, Hishtaphel, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 2 Samuel 16:4 1
הִשְׁתַּחֲו֣וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Psalms 96:9 1
הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Psalms 97:7 1
הַ/מִּֽשְׁתַּחֲוִים֙ Verb, Hishtaphel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Zephaniah 1:5 1
הַ/מִּשְׁתַּחֲוִ֥ים Verb, Hishtaphel, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Zephaniah 1:5 1
וְ/אֶֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖ה Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 1 Samuel 15:25 1
וְ/הִֽשְׁתַּחֲו֛וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Isaiah 60:14 1
וְ/הִֽשְׁתַּחֲוִ֔יתָ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 26:10 1
וְ/הִֽשְׁתַּחֲוִ֛יתָ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 30:17 1
וְ/הִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֵ֖יתִי Verb, Hishtaphel, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 1 Samuel 15:30 1
וְ/הִֽשְׁתַּחֲוֵ֨יתִי֙ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 2 Kings 5:18 1
וְ/הִֽשְׁתַּחֲוָ֛ה Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Ezekiel 46:2 1
וְ/הִֽשְׁתַּחֲוּ֔וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Exodus 33:10 1
וְ/הִשְׁתַּֽחֲוִי Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular Psalms 45:11 1
וְ/הִשְׁתַּֽחֲוּוּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Exodus 11:8 1
וְ/הִשְׁתַּחֲו֣וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Ezekiel 46:3 1
וְ/הִשְׁתַּחֲו֧וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Isaiah 27:13 1
וְ/הִשְׁתַּחֲוִ֣יתָ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 8:19 1
וְ/הִשְׁתַּחֲוִ֥יתָ Verb, Hishtaphel, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Deuteronomy 4:19 1
וְ/יִֽשְׁתַּחֲו֤וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Jussive, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Genesis 27:29 1
וְ/יִֽשְׁתַּחֲו֥וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Psalms 22:27 1
וְ/יִֽשְׁתַּחֲוּ֑וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Isaiah 49:7 1
וְ/יִשְׁתַּ֨חוּ֙ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 44:17 1
וְ/יִשְׁתַּֽחֲווּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Zephaniah 2:11 1
וְ/יִשְׁתַּחֲו֣וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Psalms 86:9 1
וְ/יִשְׁתַּחֲוּ֥וּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Jussive, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Genesis 27:29 1
וְ/יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ Verb, Hishtaphel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Psalms 72:11 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 50 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7812, 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 157 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 166 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.

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