שִׂיחַ
to meditate
‘to meditate’ is one of 2 main senses 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: ‘complain’
- Polel
- A stem of hollow/geminate roots functioning like the Piel — intensive active.
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
Person
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H7878 appears in the Book of Psalms — 14 distinct verses. 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.
Psalms
- Psalms 55:17 אָשִׂ֣יחָה Qal coh 1cs Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.
- Psalms 69:12 יָשִׂ֣יחוּ Qal impf 3mp Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
- Psalms 77:3 אָשִׂ֓יחָה Qal coh 1cs I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.
- Psalms 77:6 אָשִׂ֑יחָה Qal coh 1cs I remember my song in the night. I consider in my own heart; My spirit diligently inquires:
- Psalms 77:12 אָשִֽׂיחָה Qal coh 1cs I will also meditate on all your work, And consider your doings.
- Psalms 105:2 שִׂ֝֗יחוּ Qal impv 2mp Sing to him, sing praises to him! Tell of all his marvelous works.
- Psalms 119:15 אָשִׂ֑יחָה Qal coh 1cs I will meditate on your precepts, And consider your ways.
- Psalms 119:23 יָשִׂ֥יחַ Qal impf 3ms Though princes sit and slander me, Your servant will meditate on your statutes.
- Psalms 119:27 וְ֝/אָשִׂ֗יחָה conj + Qal coh 1cs Let me understand the teaching of your precepts! Then I will meditate on your wondrous works.
- Psalms 119:48 וְ/אָשִׂ֥יחָה conj + Qal coh 1cs I reach out my hands for your commandments, which I love. I will meditate on your statutes.
- Psalms 119:78 אָשִׂ֥יחַ Qal impf 1cs Let the proud be disappointed, for they have overthrown me wrongfully. I will meditate on your precepts.
- Psalms 119:148 לָ֝/שִׂ֗יחַ prep + Qal inf.cs My eyes stay open through the night watches, That I might meditate on your word.
- Psalms 143:5 אֲשׂוֹחֵֽחַ Polel impf 1cs I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your doings. I contemplate the work of your hands.
- Psalms 145:5 אָשִֽׂיחָה Qal coh 1cs Of the glorious majesty of your honor, Of your wondrous works, I will meditate.
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.
שיח — transliterated sîyach — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to meditate.” Its uses cluster heavily in Psalms (70% of all occurrences). Spanning 20 verses in 6 books, it ranks among the uncommon words of the Hebrew Bible. Its earliest occurrence is Judges 5:10. The lexicon spreads it across several senses; see its full sense range. See the sense tree, 20-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7878 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 →
- 20
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 20 distinct verses.
- 6 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 6 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,513
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,513 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 20 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 20 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 18 verses · 90%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 2 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).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 3 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†: I will meditate 3×, Talk 3×, Speak 2×
- American Standard Version†: I will meditate 3×, Sing praises unto him 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: I will meditate 3×, I mused 2×, Ponder 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: I will meditate 5×, Meditate 2×, Speak 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7878 across 20† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 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 H7878 across 20† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 15 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 H7878 across 20† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 11 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 H7878 across 21† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
9 senses and sub-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 9 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.
שיח I
- 1. plaint, complaint: Jb 7:13; 9:27; 10:1 (‖ מר נפשׁ), 21:4; 23:2 Pr 23:29 ψ 55:3 (‖ אָהִימָה); קוֹלִי בְּשִׂיחִי 64:2; שָׁפַךְ שׂ׳ לפני י׳ 102:1; 142:3. Foll. are dub.: e.g. Job 7:13
- 2. musing, 1 K 18:27 (E) of a god, ‖ שִׂיג לוֹ, (so RV; SS ‘nachdenken’; Buhl ‘beschäftigt sein’; AV talk); ψ 104:34 of man (Buhl SS. Bae ‘Rede, oder Gesang’).—Vid. also [שֵׂחַ] infr. e.g. 1 Kings 18:27
- 3. anxiety, trouble: מֵרֹב שִׂיחִי 1 S 1:16; (defined in MT by כַּעַס, cf. HPS; so Buhl SS, but perhaps = 1). e.g. 1 Samuel 1:16
- 4. the way in which he talks: שִׂיחוֹ 2 K 9:11. e.g. 2 Kings 9:11
שיח II denom. muse, complain, poet. talk (of)
Qal
- Impf. 3 ms. יָשִׂיחַ ψ 119:23; 3 fs. sf. תְּשִׂיחֶ֑ךָ Pr 6:22; 1 s. אָשִׂיחַ ψ 119:78 +, etc.; Imv. ms. שִׂיחַ Jb 12:8; mpl. שִׂיחוּ Ju 5:10 +; Inf. cstr. שִׂיחַ ψ 119:148;— e.g. Psalms 119:23
- 1. complain: ψ 55:18; 77:4 (both ‖ הָמָה), Jb 7:11 (בְּמַר נַפְשִׁי), + ψ 6:7 (read prob. אָשִׂיחָה for אַשְׂחֶה). e.g. Psalms 55:18
- 2. muse: עִם־לְבָבִי ψ 77:7; c. ב, meditate upon, study, God’s עֲלִילוֹת v 13 (‖ הָגָה); פִּקּוּדִים 119:15, 78; חֻקִּים v 23, 48; נִפְלָאוֹת v 27; אִמְרָה v 148; c. acc. דִּבְרֵי נִפְלְאֹתֶיךָ 145:5. e.g. Psalms 77:7
- 3.
- a. talk (about), sing (of): abs. Ju 5:10 (ode); c. ב rei, ψ 105:2 = 1 Ch 16:9 (‖ שִׁיר, זִמֵּר; so SS Gerber, but poss. = 2, so Dr), ψ 69:13 (ב pers. against; ‖ נְגִינוֹת, of mocking words). e.g. Judges 5:10
- b. c. sf. pers. talk (with) Pr 6:22 (del. Toy); c. לְ speak to Jb 12:8 (Di ‘sprich sinnend’; Hi Bu read שֶׁרֶץ; Kau חַיַּת (so Bu as altern.), Bö al. sub II. שִׂיחַ). Pôlʿel meditate, consider: Impf. 3 ms. יְשׂוֹחֵחַ Is 53:8 (abs.); 1 s. אֲשׂוֹחֵחַ ψ 143:5 (ב rei; ‖ הָגָה). e.g. Proverbs 6:22
שיח III [m.] bush, shrub, plant
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. n.m. ψ 104:34 complaint, musing;—abs. שׂ׳ 1 K 18:27; Pr 23:29; sf. שִׂיחִי 1 S 1:16 +, שִׂחִי Jb 23:2, שִׂיחוֹ 2 K 9:11 ψ 102:1;—
II. vb.denom. muse, complain, poet. talk (of);—
III. n.[m.] bush, shrub, plant;—שׂ׳ abs. coll. Jb 30:4, cstr. שׂ׳ הַשָּׂדֶה Gn 2:5 (J); pl. שִׂיחִים Jb 30:7, אַחַד הַשִּׂיחִם Gn 21:15 (E).
— 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.
שִׂיחַ
- to think, talk, v. סוּחַ.
שֵׂיחַ
- thought, talk. Ḥag. 5ᵇ (ref. to Am. IV, 13) עבד שרבו … מה שֵׂיחוֹ תקנה יש לו is there a remedy (subterfuge) for a slave whose master can tell him what he thinks?; Yalk. Am. 542.—V. סִיחָה. e.g. Amos 4:13
שִׂיחַ ²
- (b. h.) plant, tree. — Pl. שִׂיחִין. B. Bath. 78ᵇ (play on סיחון, Num. XXI, 28) מקרית צדיקים שנקראו ש׳ from the city of the righteous who are named trees (as Ps. XCII, 13; v. Snh. 93ᵃ); Yalk. Num. 765. e.g. Numbers 21:28
שַׂיָּח
- (שוח = שָׂחָה) swimmer. — Pl. שַׂיָּחִין. Tosef. Ter. VII, 14 חבית של ש׳ ed. Zuck. (Var. שַׁיָּטִין; שועין, corr. acc.) the swimmers’ bottle, v. חָבִית; Y. ib. VIII, 45ᵈ bot. חבית ש׳ (insert של).
שָׁיֵחַ
- , v. שׁוּח ch.
שִׁיחַ
- (שׁוּחַ) ditch. B. Kam. V, 5, v. בּוֹר II. Erub. II, 5; a. fr.—Pl. שִׁיחִים, שִׁיחִין. B. Bath. III, 1. Tanḥ. Haăz. 1 כעקרב מוטל לארץ ולש׳ like a scorpion that lies on the ground and in ditches. B. Kam. 50ᵃ חופר בורות ש׳ וכ׳ digger of wells, ditches, and caves; Tosef. ib. VI, 5 חופר ש׳, v. נְחוּנְיָא; a. e.
שִׁיחַ ²
- , pit, cavity. Targ. Ps. XXXV, 7, a. e., v. שְׁיַיח.—Pl. שִׁיחִין, שִׁיחַיָּא, שִׁיחַיָּה. Targ. Zech. XIV, 10 שִׁיחֵי מלכא (h. text יקבי המלך), v. infra.—Pesik. Ronni, p. 143ᵃ; Yalk. Is. 334 (expl. יקבי המלך) עד ש׳ דיפו, v. יָפוֹ; Cant. R. to VII, 5.
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 18 distinct written forms H7878 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 H7878, 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 12 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 20 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.
