שָׁטַף
to wash
also: rinse, overflow, engulf fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
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”). Here: ‘overflow’
- Pual
- The passive counterpart of the Piel.
- Niphal
- Usually the simple passive or reflexive of the Qal (“he was written”).
Form
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Jussive
- A third- or second-person volitional form expressing wish or command (“let him write”).
State
- 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”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
27 distinct verses where H7857 appears in the Qal stem, across 10 books. Filtered view — show all forms. 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.
Leviticus 1 verse
1 Kings 1 verse
2 Chronicles 1 verse
Job 1 verse
Psalms 4 verses
- Psalms 69:2 שְׁטָפָֽתְ/נִי Qal pf 3fs + sfx pers 1cs I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
- Psalms 69:15 תִּשְׁטְפֵ֤/נִי Qal juss 3fs + sfx pers 1cs Don't let the flood waters overwhelm me, Neither let the deep swallow me up. Don't let the pit shut its mouth on me.
- Psalms 78:20 יִ֫שְׁטֹ֥פוּ Qal impf 3mp Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, Streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"
- Psalms 124:4 שְׁטָפ֑וּ/נוּ Qal pf 3cp + sfx pers 1cp Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul;
Song of Solomon 1 verse
Isaiah 9 verses
- Isaiah 8:8 שָׁטַ֣ף Qal pf 3ms and it shall sweep onward into Judah; it shall overflow and pass through; it shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of its wings shall fill the breadth of your land, Immanuel.
- Isaiah 10:22 שׁוֹטֵ֥ף Qal ptcp.act ms For though your people, Israel, be as the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of them shall return: a destruction [is] determined, overflowing with righteousness.
- Isaiah 28:2 שֹׁטְפִ֛ים Qal ptcp.act mp Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one; as a tempest of hail, a destroying storm, as a tempest of mighty waters overflowing, will he cast down to the earth with the hand.
- Isaiah 28:15 שׁוֹטֵ֤ף Qal ptcp.act ms Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
- Isaiah 28:17 יִשְׁטֹֽפוּ Qal impf 3mp I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.
- Isaiah 28:18 שׁוֹטֵף֙ Qal ptcp.act ms Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it.
- Isaiah 30:28 שׁוֹטֵף֙ Qal ptcp.act ms and his breath is as an overflowing stream, that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction: and a bridle that causes to err [shall be] in the jaws of the peoples.
- Isaiah 43:2 יִשְׁטְפ֑וּ/ךָ Qal impf 3mp + sfx pers 2ms When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle on you.
- Isaiah 66:12 שׁוֹטֵ֛ף Qal ptcp.act ms For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and you shall suck [of it]; you shall be borne on the side, and shall be dandled on the knees.
Jeremiah 2 verses
- Jeremiah 8:6 שׁוֹטֵ֖ף Qal ptcp.act ms I listened and heard, but they didn't speak aright: no man repents him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? everyone turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
- Jeremiah 47:2 שׁוֹטֵ֔ף וְ/יִשְׁטְפוּ֙ Qal ptcp.act ms conj + Qal impf 3mp Thus says Yahweh: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein; and the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.
Ezekiel 4 verses
- Ezekiel 13:11 שׁוֹטֵ֗ף Qal ptcp.act ms tell those who daub it with whitewash, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and you, great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it.
- Ezekiel 13:13 שֹׁטֵף֙ Qal ptcp.act ms Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will even tear it with a stormy wind in my wrath; and there shall be an overflowing shower in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it.
- Ezekiel 16:9 וָ/אֶשְׁטֹ֥ף conj + Qal wimpf 1cs Then washed I you with water; yes, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil.
- Ezekiel 38:22 שׁוֹטֵף֩ Qal ptcp.act ms With pestilence and with blood will I enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are with him, an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, fire, and sulfur.
Daniel 3 verses
- Daniel 11:10 וְ/שָׁטַ֣ף conj + Qal wpf 3ms His sons shall war, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces, which shall come on, and overflow, and pass through; and they shall return and war, even to his fortress.
- Daniel 11:26 יִשְׁט֑וֹף Qal impf 3ms Yes, they who eat of his dainties shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow; and many shall fall down slain.
- Daniel 11:40 וְ/שָׁטַ֥ף conj + Qal wpf 3ms At the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.
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.
שטף — transliterated shâṭaph — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to wash.” Debuting at Leviticus 6:28, it then recurs through the corpus. With 30 verses in 10 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Its uses concentrate in Isaiah (30% of all occurrences). Read the stem: it spans 3 stems, including Qal and Niphal. See the sense tree, 30-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7857 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 →
- 30
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 30 distinct verses.
- 10 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 10 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,120
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,120 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 30 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 30 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 16 verses · 53%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 11 verses · 37%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 3 verses · 10%
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: Shall overflow 5×, Overflowing 4×, Overflow 3×
- American Standard Version: Overflowing 4×, Shall overflow 4×
- Berean Standard Bible: Torrents 3×, Like a flood 2×, Overflowing 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Overflowing 7×, Overflowed 2×, Shall be rinsed 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7857 across 31 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 16 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 H7857 across 31 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 23 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 H7857 across 30 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 21 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 H7857 across 36 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 21 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 Pual (the passive of Piel).
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 6 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
- Pf. 3 ms. שׁ׳ Is 8:8 +, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. וַיִּשְׁטֹף 1 K 22:38, etc.; Pt. שׁוֹטֵף Is 10:22 +, pl. שֹׁטְפִים Is 28:2;— e.g. Isaiah 8:8
- 1. overflow, of river Is 8:8; Je 47:2a (v. נַחַל), Dn 11:10, 40, all fig. of invading army, cf. Is 28:15 (qy. by StaThLZ, Apr. 1894, 235, Du Marti read שׁוֹט שֹׁטֵט), v 18 (v. שׁוֹט), also (sim. of י׳ in judgment) v 2 (מַיִם), 30:28, of judicial destruction, שׁוֹטֵף צְדָקָה Is 10:22; c. acc. of land Je 47:2b, pers. (fig.) Is 43:2 (נְהָרוֹת), ψ 69:3 (שִׁבֹּלֶת), v 16 (שׁ׳ מַיִם), 124:4 (מַיִם), cf. Is 28:17 Ct 8:7; גֶּשֶׁם שׁוֹטֵף flooding rain (of י׳’s judgment) Ez 13:11, 13; 38:22; נַחַל שׁוֹטֵף Is 66:12, sim., in good sense.—Abs. Dn 11:26 v. Niph.—Fig. of dashing, rushing horse, כְּסוּס שׁוֹ׳ בַּמִּלְחָמָה Je 8:6. e.g. Isaiah 8:8
- 2. flow, run, lit. of נַחַל ψ 78:20 2 Ch 32:4. e.g. Psalms 78:20
- 3. lit., rinse or wash off, c. acc. of thing washed 1 K 22:38, יָדָיו בַּמָּ֑יִם Lv 15:11 (P); of stain Ez 16:9 (מֵעָלַיִךְ; ‖ רָחַץ); עֲפַר־אָ֑רֶץ Jb 14:19. e.g. 1 Kings 22:38
Niphal
- Impf. 3 ms. יִשָּׁטֵף בַּמַּיִם Lv 15:12 be rinsed out, off (P; of wooden vessel); 3 mpl. יִשָּֽׁטְפוּ מִלְּפָנָיו Dn 11:22 be swept away (defeated), read prob. יִשָּׁטֵף (for יִשְׁטֹף), also v 26 (cf. Dr). e.g. Leviticus 15:12
Pual
- Pf. 3 ms. וּמֹרַק וְשֻׁטַּף בַּמָּ֑יִם Lv 6:21 (P) it shall be scoured and rinsed. e.g. Leviticus 6:21
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. overflow, rinse or wash off (NH id., so J.Aram. שְׁטַף; Assyrian šaṭâpu, overflow, Arabic سطف id., Cuche);—
— 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.
שָׁטַף
- 1. to wash, rinse. Zeb. XI, 6 (94ᵇ) ושׁוֹטְפוֹ, v. מָרַק; Tosef. ib. X, 13 ושׁוֹטְפָן. Tosef. Ḥull. X, 4 השׁוֹטֵף רחיליו חייב וכ׳ if one washes his lambs (in place of clipping), he is bound to give the priest’s share of the wool (that they shed); Ḥull. 137ᵃ; a. fr.—Part. pass. שָׁטוּף. Sabb. 99ᵃ (ref. to Ex. XXXV, 26) ש׳ בעזים וטווו בעזים Ms. M. (ed. מן העזים) the hair was washed on the goats and spun on the goats; ib. 74ᵇ; Yalk. Ex. 370. e.g. Exodus 35:26
- 2. to flood, carry off, drown. B. Mets. VIII, 5 ש׳ נהר זיתיו וכ׳ if a stream carried off one’s olive-trees and deposited them in a neighbor’s field. B. Kam. X, 4 (115ᵇ) ש׳ נהר חמורו וכ׳ (Bab. ed. נחל) if a stream (ravine) carried off his own and his neighbor’s ass …, and he let go his own and saved his neighbor’s. Ib. 5 (117ᵇ) שְׁטָפָהּ נהר if the river washed it (the unlawfully taken field) away. Yoma 78ᵃ נחל שׁוֹטֵף a swiftly running brook. Y. Shek. I, 46ᵃ ירד שֶׁטֶף … ושְׁטָפוֹ a rain shower came down and washed it (the mark on the grave) off. Y. B. Mets. VIII, end, 11ᵈ בששְׁטָפָן (not בששטן), v. גּוּשׁ. Ex. R. s. 24 נתמלא … ובקש לשׁוֹטְפָן the genius of the sea became wroth against them, and wanted to drown them. Num. R. s. 199 ויצאו מים רבים ושָׁטְפוּ כל וכ׳ many waters came forth, and flooded all those who murmured; Midr. Till. to Ps. LXXVIII, 20 (corr. acc.); a. fr.—V. שָׁטוּף.
- same. Taan. 6ᵃ ומַשְׁטִיף את הזרעים (Ms. M. ששׁוֹטֵף, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note) it (the heavy rain) washes the seeds away; Yalk. Joel 535 ומְשַׁטֵּף (Pi.).—Part. pass. מוּשְׁטָף; pl. מוּשְׁטָפִים carried off, floating. Ex. R. l. c. לפי שראו … מ׳ על פני המים because they saw the bodies … floating on the water.
- , Nithpa. נִשְׁתַּטֵּף
- 1. to be washed, showered upon; to take a shower bath. Sabb. 40ᵃ ויוצא ומִשְׁתַּטַּף וכ׳ and goes out (of the steam-room), and takes a shower bath in the outer room. Ib.ᵇ ובלבד שלא יִשְׁתַּטֵּף וכ׳ but he must not have a cold shower bath and then warm himself &c. Tosef. ib. III (IV), 4; a. fr.
- 2. to be swept away, drowned. Sifré Deut. 307 מה ראו … שנִשְׁטְפוּ במים why were the men of the flood drowned in water?; Yalk. ib. 942 שיִשָּׁטְפוּ; Sifré l. c. מה … להִשְׁתַּטֵּף באש וכ׳ why were the men of Sodom … swept away by fire and sulphur?; Yalk. l. c. להִשָּׁטֵף; a. e.—Trnsf. to be carried away by passion. Num. R. s. 917; Sifré Num. 12 הרבה קידמוך ונִשְׁטְפוּ many women before thee have been carried away (into infidelity).
שְׁטֵף
- 1. to wash, rinse. Targ. I Kings XXII, 38. Targ. II Sam. XI, 8; a. e.—Tam. 27ᵇ שְׁטוֹף ושתי שטוף ואחית rinse (the cup) and drink, rinse, and set it down; a. e.
- 2. to overflow, flood, wash away. Targ. Ps. LXXVIII, 20 ישטפון מיא Ms. (omitted in ed.). Targ. Is. XXXIII, 21. Targ. Y. II, Num. XXI, 16. Targ. Ps. CXXIV, 4; a. e.—Naz. 32ᵇ שַׁטְפוּהוּ ובנן וכ׳ the Rabbis carried R. El. away, and made him stand on their principle, i.e. made him give up his opinion and adopt theirs. Succ. 53ᵃ למִשְׁטְפָא וכ׳, v. קְפֵי; a. e.
- to wash. Y. Ber. VIII, 12ᵃ bot. ולא מְשַׁטֵּף ידוי וכ׳ and did not wash his hands up to the joints.
שֶׁטֶף
- 1. flood, shower. Y. Shek. I, 46ᵃ, v. שָׁטַף. Gen. R. s. 73 ש׳ של גשמים a flood caused by rains (brought the rams from Laban’s fold to Jacob’s); Yalk. ib. 130; a. e.—Trnsf. passion, anger. Lev. R. s. 24, beg. בזמן שהוא נותן … שיש ש׳ בדינו when he orders execution (punishment), none praise him, for they know that there is passion in his judgment; Yalk. Ps. 843; Y. Ber. IX, 14ᵇ
- 2. washing, rinsing; כלי ש׳ a vessel which requires only rinsing in order to be restored to Levitical cleanness. Ḥull. 25ᵃ; Zeb. 3ᵇ; a. e.
- 3. wool that is gained by washing. Sifré Deut. 166 (ref. to Deut. XVIII, 4) ראשית גז ולא ראשית הש׳ the first of the wool that is cut, but not the first of the wool that comes out by washing.—4) ש׳ של עזים goat-skin made hairless by washing. Cant. R. to IV, 11; Gen. R. s. 65; Yalk. ib. 115 אין לך … מהש׳ וכ׳ there is no smell more offensive than that of washed goat-skins. e.g. Deuteronomy 18:4
- 5. hair that is fallen out, bald pate. Koh. R. to I, 8 (in enigmatic speech) שִׁיטְפִי מאלל (not שיטפו) my hair is going.
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 29 distinct written forms H7857 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7857, 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 27 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 30 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
- Leviticus 15:11
- 1 Kings 22:38
- 2 Chronicles 32:4
- Job 14:19
- Psalms 69:2
- Song of Solomon 8:7
- Isaiah 8:8
- Jeremiah 8:6
- Ezekiel 13:11
- Daniel 11:10
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.
