שָׁכֹל
to be bereaved
also: make childless, miscarry fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘make childless’
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
Form
- 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”).
- 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).
- Infinitive Construct
- A bound verbal noun, frequently with prepositions (“to write / in writing”).
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms 17 distinct
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 3 times (13%)
- Verb, Piel, Participle Active, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 3 times (13%)
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 2 times (8%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 2 times (8%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 2 times (8%)
- Adjective, Adjective, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Piel, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (4%)
+9 more forms (9 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 24 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H7921 appears — 22 distinct verses across 13 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 4 verses
- Genesis 27:45 אֶשְׁכַּ֛ל Qal impf 1cs until your brother's anger turn away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?"
- Genesis 31:38 שִׁכֵּ֑לוּ Piel pf 3cp These twenty years have I been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven't eaten the rams of your flocks.
- Genesis 42:36 שִׁכַּלְתֶּ֑ם Piel pf 2mp Jacob, their father, said to them, "You have bereaved me of my children! Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin away. All these things are against me."
- Genesis 43:14 שָׁכֹ֖לְתִּי שָׁכָֽלְתִּי Qal pf 1cs Qal pf 1cs May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved."
Exodus 1 verse
Leviticus 1 verse
Deuteronomy 1 verse
1 Samuel 1 verse
2 Kings 2 verses
- 2 Kings 2:19 מְשַׁכָּֽלֶת Piel ptcp.act fs The men of the city said to Elisha, Behold, we pray you, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees: but the water is bad, and the land miscarries.
- 2 Kings 2:21 וּ/מְשַׁכָּֽלֶת conj + Piel ptcp.act fs He went forth to the spring of the waters, and cast salt therein, and said, Thus says Yahweh, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from there any more death or miscarrying.
Job 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Jeremiah 1 verse
Lamentations 1 verse
Ezekiel 5 verses
- Ezekiel 5:17 וְ/שִׁכְּלֻ֔/ךְ conj + Piel wpf 3cp + sfx pers 2fs and I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring the sword on you: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.
- Ezekiel 14:15 וְ/שִׁכְּלָ֑תָּ/ה conj + Piel wpf 3fs + sfx pers 3fs If I cause evil animals to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the animals;
- Ezekiel 36:12 לְ/שַׁכְּלָֽ/ם prep + Piel inf.cs + sfx pers 3mp Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no more henceforth bereave them of children.
- Ezekiel 36:13 וּ/מְשַׁכֶּ֥לֶת conj + Piel ptcp.act fs cs Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because they say to you, You [land] are a devourer of men, and have been a bereaver of your nation;
- Ezekiel 36:14 תְשַׁכְּלִי Piel impf 2fs therefore you shall devour men no more, neither bereave your nation any more, says the Lord Yahweh;
Hosea 2 verses
- Hosea 9:12 וְ/שִׁכַּלְתִּ֖י/ם conj + Piel wpf 1cs + sfx pers 3mp Though they bring up their children, Yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!
- Hosea 9:14 מַשְׁכִּ֔יל Hiphil ptcp.act ms Give them--Yahweh what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
Malachi 1 verse
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.
“to be bereaved” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb שכל (shâkôl). First canonically at Genesis 27:45, it enters the text early. It turns up in 22 verses across 13 books, an uncommon footprint. Read the stem: it spans 3 stems, including Qal and Piel. From the same root come שכול, שכול and שכלים. The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7921 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 →
- 22
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 22 distinct verses.
- 13 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 13 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,327
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,327 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 22 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 22 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 13 verses · 59%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 7 verses · 32%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 9%
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†: Among you which shall rob you of your children 1×, Barren 1×, Be childless 1×
- American Standard Version†: Among you 1×, Be childless 1×, Bereaveth 1×
- Berean Standard Bible†: I am bereaved 2×, Miscarry 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Children 2×, I am bereaved 2×, Miscarry 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7921 across 24† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7921 across 24† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H7921 across 22† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 18 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 H7921 across 33† 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.
6 senses and sub-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.
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.
שכל I be bereaved (= Arabic ثَكِلَ, 𝔗 תְּכוֹל, תְּכֵל
Qal
- Pf. 1 s. כַּאֲשֶׁר שָׁכֹלְתִּי שָׁכָ֑לְתִּי Gn 43:14 (E) if I am bereaved, I am bereaved (of father, expr. resignation; on כָ֑לְ v. Ges§ 29 u); Impf. 1 s. אֶשְׁכַּל 27:45 (E), c. acc. pers. be bereaved of you both (of mother); 3 fs. תִּשְׁכַּל מִנָּשִׁים אִמֶּ֑ךָ 1 S 15:33 thy mother shall be bereaved above (more than) women. e.g. Genesis 43:14
Piel
- Pf. 3 fs. שִׁכְּלָה 1 S 15:33 +, sf. וְשִׁכְּלָ֑תָּה Ez 14:15, etc.; Impf. 3 fs. תְּשַׁכֵּל Dt 32:25 +, 2 fs. תְּשַׁכְּלִי Ez 36:14 Qr (v. כָּשַׁל Pi.); Inf. cstr. sf. לְשַׁכְּלָם v 12; Pt. מְשַׁכֵּלָה Ex 23:26, -כֶּ֫לֶת Ez 36:13, -כָּ֑לֶת 2 K 2:19, 21;— e.g. 1 Samuel 15:33
- 1. make childless, acc. of father Gn 42:36 (E), of mothers 1 S 15:33 (subj. חֶרֶב), cf. Lv 26:22 Ez 5:17 (subj. famine and beasts), and 14:15 (id.; obj. land); acc. of people Ho 9:12 (מֵאָדָם), Je 15:7 (+ אִבַּדְתִּי), Ez 36:12, cf. v 13, 14 (v. supra); obj. om. (subj. חֶרֶב) Dt 32:25; La 1:20; Ez 21:19 (Co, for תִּכָּפֵל, v. כָּפַל p. 495b; otherwise Toy Krae). e.g. Genesis 42:36
- 2.
- a. cause barrenness, or abortion, הָאָרֶץ מְשַׁכְּ׳ 2 K 2:19, cf. v 21 (Thes otherwise, v. מְשׁ׳ infra). e.g. 2 Kings 2:19
- b. shew abortion, (1) of any female Ex 23:26 (E; + עֲקָרָה), animals Gn 31:38 (E); Jb 21:10; (2) of vine Mal 3:11. e.g. Exodus 23:26
Hiphil
- Pt. רֶחֶם (וְשָׁדַיִם צֹמְקִים) מַשְׁכִּיל Ho 9:14 miscarrying womb.—Je 50:9 read מַשְׂכִּיל successful, 𝔊 𝔖 Heb Codd. Ew Hi Gf Gie. e.g. Hosea 9:14
שכל II according to Thes n. f. abstr. miscarriage, 2 K 2
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. be bereaved (= Arabic ثَكِلَ, 𝔗 תְּכוֹל, תְּכֵל; cf. Syriac ܬܟܳܠܴܐ loss of children);—
I. according to Thes n. f. abstr. miscarriage, 2 K 2:21 (‖ מָוֶת); if so, read כֹּלֶת Klo Kit; but probably Pi. Pt. as v 19, cf. Bur.
— 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.
כֹּל
- , constr. כָּל (b. h.; כָּלַל) all, every one. Sot. 5ᵃ הקב"ה הניח כל הרים וכ׳ the Lord passed over all mountains and hills and caused his Presence to rest on Sinai. Ib. (ref. to ככל Job XXIV, 24) כאברהם … בַּכֹּל מִכֹּל כֹּל like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob of whom is written ‘with everything’ &c. (Gen. XXIV, 1; XXVII, 33; XXXIII, 11).—Ḥull. I, 1 הַכֹּל שוחטין וכ׳ all persons are competent to slaughter &c.; וכוּלָּן וכ׳ but all those (mentioned as unfit), if they &c. Ib. 2 ובַכֹּל שוחטין וכ׳ and you may slaughter with any cutting tool except &c. Tem. I, 1; a. v. fr.—דברי הכל the words of all, (it is) the unanimous opinion, all agree. Bets. 9ᵃ ד׳ ה׳ מותר all agree that it is permitted; a. fr.—אין … כל עיקר not at all. Y. Dem. I, 21ᵈ אינו מפריש כל עיקר he does not set aside at all; a. fr.—Y. Shebi. VIII, beg. 37ᵈ, a. e. לא הכל ממנו it is not in his power to do so, v. הֵימ־.—כָּל העולם כּוּלּוֹ the whole world. Ber. 17ᵇ; a. fr.—כל ה־, כל ש־ whosoever, whatsoever. Gitt. 11ᵇ כל האומר תנו וכ׳ whoever says, ‘Give you’ (a letter of emancipation &c.), is considered as having said, Take possession (in behalf of the person concerned). Kidd. 43ᵇ כל שאין יכולה וכ׳ whatever woman is incapable of guarding her letter of divorce, is incapable of being divorced. Ḥag. 4ᵇ, v. יֵשׁ; a. v. fr.—כָּל שֶׁהוּא whatever it be, i.e. the smallest quantity. Macc. 17ᵃ, a. e. כ׳ ש׳ למכות for punishment with lashes, the partaking of any quantity is sufficient, opp. כזית, v. זַיִת. Shebu. III, 1 ואכל כ׳ ש׳ and ate the least thing; a. v. fr.—כָּל שֶׁכֵּן (abbr. כ"ש) there is every reason that it is even so, i.e. so much the more, a matter of course. Sabb. 63ᵃ … אורך וכ"ש וכ׳ there is length of life promised and, as a matter of course, wealth and honor; a. fr.—לא כ"ש, v. הַשְׁתָּא. e.g. Job 24:24
כָּל
- ch., v. כּוֹל
שָׂכַל I
- v. סָכַל I) to be bright.
- 1. to be wise, understand; to consider, deliberate. Midr. Prov. to I, 3 כיון … צריך להַשְׂכִּיל היאך וכ׳ when a man is appointed judge, he must deliberate how to acquit the innocent &c.; צריך להשכיל ולדקדק וכ׳ he must study and investigate the law, that he may not sin or lead to sin; Yalk. ib. 929 צריך להשכיל היאך לדקדק וכ׳ he must deliberate how to carry out the law exactly &c. Midr. Till. to Ps. XXXII (ref. to I Sam. XVIII, 14, sq.) ומפני שהיה מַשְׂכִּיל היה כסוי חטאה and because he was wise, his sin was covered; a. fr. e.g. 1 Samuel 18:14
- 2. to look towards, face; (cmp. סָכַם, a. כּוּן) to be directed. Num. R. s. 145; Pesik. R. s. 3 (ref. to שִׂכֵּל את ידיו, Gen. XLVIII, 14) הִשְׂכִּילוּ ידיו … לרוח הקדש Jacob’s hands were directed towards (pointed to) the holy spirit. e.g. Genesis 48:14
שָׂכַל II
- to entangle, cross.
- same, trnsf. to cause confusion. Pesik. R. s. 3 (ref. to Gen. XLVIII, 14) [read:] מהו ש׳ אמר ר׳ יהודה ש׳ ידיו … בבכורתו וכ׳ (אמר רבי ש׳, a dittography) he (God) made Jacob’s hands bring confusion into Menasseh’s birthright. e.g. Genesis 48:14
שָׁכַל
- [to finish, consume,] to bereave (of everything), make childless; שָׁכֹל to be childless. Part. pass. שָׁכוּל; f. שְׁכוּלָה; pl. f. שְׁכוּלוֹת. Pirké d’R. El. ch. XLIX (v. I Sam. XV, 33) כשם ששִׁכְּלָה … וישבו נשיהם ש׳ ואלמנות כן תִּשְׁכַּל וכ׳ as the sword of Amalek, thy (Haman’s) grandfather, consumed the young men …, and their women remained childless and widowed, so shall thy mother be childless among women; ובתפלת … ש׳ וכ׳ and through the prayer of Esther and her maids all males of Amalek were killed, and their women remained childless &c. e.g. 1 Samuel 15:33
- to destroy, consume. Ib., v. supra. Num. R. s. 1624 בראתי אותך שתהא מְשַׁכֵּל באומות וכ׳ I have created thee (the angel of death) to work destruction among the nations, except &c. Gen. R. s. 86 דוב שהיתה מְשַׁכֶּלֶת בבני אדוניה a bear that worked destruction among the children of her owner; a. e.—Part. pass. מְשׁוּכָּל. Yalk. Cant. 988 (ref. to שכלה, Cant. IV, 2) כל מי שלומד מהם אינו מש׳ whoever learns from them (the scholars), shall not be bereft (injured). e.g. Song of Solomon 4:2
שְׁכַל
- , Ithpa. אִשְׁתַּכֵּל, v. שׁכְלֵל.
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 24 distinct written forms H7921 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 H7921, 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 22 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 22 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 27:45
- Exodus 23:26
- Leviticus 26:22
- Deuteronomy 32:25
- 1 Samuel 15:33
- 2 Kings 2:19
- Job 21:10
- Isaiah 49:21
- Jeremiah 15:7
- Lamentations 1:20
- Ezekiel 5:17
- Hosea 9:12
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.
