שָׁכַם
to rise early
‘to rise early’ is one of 3 main senses 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
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
- Sequential Perfect
- A perfect with prefixed waw continuing a preceding imperfect or command (waw-consecutive perfect).
- Participle Active
- A verbal adjective expressing ongoing or characteristic action (“writing / one who writes”).
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
State
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H7925 appears in the Book of Isaiah — 2 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.
Isaiah
- Isaiah 5:11 מַשְׁכִּימֵ֥י Hiphil ptcp.act mp cs Woe to those who rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; Who stay late into the night, until wine inflames them!
- Isaiah 37:36 וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֣ימוּ conj + Hiphil wimpf 3mp The angel of Yahweh went forth, and struck in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
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.
שכם — transliterated shâkam — is a Hebrew verb carrying the sense “to rise early.” Its English rendering has broadened — “rose up early” classically, “again and again” (Berean Standard Bible) and “and” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) in modern versions; see the renderings breakdown. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 64 verses — moderately common. It first appears in Genesis 19:2. Its lexical range runs to 3 senses. 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 H7925 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 →
- 64
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 64 distinct verses.
- 17 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 17 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #597
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 597 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 64 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 64 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 43 verses · 67%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 14 verses · 22%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 7 verses · 11%
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: Rose up early 12×, Early 6×, Rose early 6×
- American Standard Version: Rose up early 9×, Rising up early 6×, Rose early 5×
- Berean Standard Bible: Again and again 8×, Got up 7×, Got up early 7×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: And 11×, Got up early 11×, Rising early 9×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7925 across 67 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 17 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 H7925 across 67 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 19 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 H7925 across 65 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 H7925 across 80 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 13 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in BDB
The 3 senses BDB distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency or importance). The full entry — with sub-senses — is in the Lexicon Entry tab.
- to rise or start early
(Hiphil)
- to rise early, make an early start
- early (as adverb)
Word origin
[ שָׁכַם ] 65 vb. Hiph. denom. start, rise, early
— 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.
שָׂכַם
- , Hif. הִשְׂכִּים, v. סָכַם.
שָׁכַם
- , Hif. הִשְׁכִּים (b. h.; [to load, v. Ges. Thes. s. v.,] to rise early; to do a thing early. Ber. 30ᵃ ה׳ לצאת לדרך if one rises early (before sunrise) to go on the road; Tosef. ib. III, 19. Cant. R. to V, 11 (play on שחרות כעורב, ib.; cmp. שׁחַר) מַשְׁכִּים ומעריב (Lev. R. s. 19 משחיר), v. עָרַב II. B. Mets. VII, 1 if one hired working men, ואמר להן להַשְׁכִּים וכ׳ and told them that he expected them to come to their work earlier and go later (than the customary time). Ber. 47ᵇ לעולם יַשְׁכִּים אדם וכ׳ a man should always go early to the house of prayer, that he may succeed in being counted among the earliest ten &c. Ib. 16ᵇ; Y. ib. IV, 7ᵈ bot. ונַשְׁכִּים ונמצא וכ׳ that we may early (in life) obtain &c., v. יִחוּל. B. Kam. 92ᵇ הַשְׁכֵּם ואכול take an early breakfast. Gitt. 7ᵃ הַשְׁכֵּם והערב עליהן והם וכ׳ (omit לבה"מ) pray against them (the tormentors) early and late, and they shall cease of themselves; a. fr.—Bicc. III, 2 ולִמַשְׁכִּים היה וכ׳ and at rising time &c.
שְׁכֶם I
- (b. h.)
- 1. shoulder. Gen. R. s. 53 (ref. to Gen. XXI, 14) שכן דרך עבדים … על שִׁכְמָם for such is the manner of slaves, to carry their filled pitchers on their shoulder; a. e. e.g. Genesis 21:14
- 2. load; trnsf. (cmp. מַשָּׂא, סִבָּלוֹן) portion, share. Gen. R. s. 97, end (ref. to Gen. XLVIII, 22) ש׳ זו הבכורה by sh’khem is meant the share of the first-born; B. Bath. 123ᵃ; a. e. e.g. Genesis 48:22
- 3. mountain range, v. next w.
שְׁכֶם II
- (b. h.)
- 1. pr. n. m. Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite. Macc. 11ᵃ, a. e., v. גְּזַר. Sot. 22ᵇ, v. שִׁיכְמִי; a. fr.
- 2. pr. n. pl. Shechem in Mount Ephraim. Gen. R. s. 97, end (ref. to Gen. XLVIII, 22, v. preced.) זו ש׳ ודאי it means Shechem in reality. Ib. (in a corrupt passage) לפיכך תהא הש׳ בחלקך therefore shall the district of Sh. (or the mountain range, v. preced.) be in thy share. Ib. בש׳ נפרצה וכ׳ in Sh. did unchastity break out, and thou didst fence it in (setting the example of chastity), therefore &c. Num. R. s. 23, v. נִיפּוֹלִין; a. fr. e.g. Genesis 48:22
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 37 distinct written forms H7925 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/יַּשְׁכֵּ֨ם | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Exodus 34:4 | 9 |
| הַשְׁכֵּ֣ם | Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute | 1 Samuel 17:16 | 7 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֣ימוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Genesis 26:31 | 6 |
| הַשְׁכֵּ֥ם | Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute | Jeremiah 7:25 | 3 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֣מוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | 1 Samuel 1:19 | 3 |
| הַשְׁכֵּ֤ם | Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute | Jeremiah 7:13 | 2 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכֵּ֣ם | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Exodus 24:4 | 2 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכֵּ֤ם | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Joshua 7:16 | 2 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכֵּ֥ם | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Genesis 19:27 | 2 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכֵּם֙ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Chronicles 29:20 | 2 |
| אַשְׁכֵּ֥ים | Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute | Jeremiah 25:3 | 1 |
| הִשְׁכִּ֣ימוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Zephaniah 3:7 | 1 |
| הַשְׁכֵּ֑ים | Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute | Proverbs 27:14 | 1 |
| הַשְׁכֵּ֣ים | Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute | Jeremiah 35:15 | 1 |
| הַשְׁכֵּ֥ים | Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute | Jeremiah 44:4 | 1 |
| וְ/הִשְׁכִּ֣ים | Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 1:5 | 1 |
| וְ/הִשְׁכִּים֙ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Samuel 15:2 | 1 |
| וְ/הִשְׁכַּמְתֶּ֖ם | Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Genesis 19:2 | 1 |
| וְ/הִשְׁכַּמְתֶּ֣ם | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | 1 Samuel 29:10 | 1 |
| וְ/הִשְׁכַּמְתֶּ֤ם | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Judges 19:9 | 1 |
| וְ/הַשְׁכֵּ֥ם | Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute | Jeremiah 26:5 | 1 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֗מוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | 1 Samuel 9:26 | 1 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֜ימוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Judges 6:28 | 1 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֡ימוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Joshua 8:14 | 1 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֤מוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | 1 Samuel 5:3 | 1 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֥ימוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Judges 19:5 | 1 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֨ימוּ֙ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Exodus 32:6 | 1 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכִּ֨מוּ֙ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Joshua 6:15 | 1 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכֵּ֧ם | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 1 Samuel 15:12 | 1 |
| וַ/יַּשְׁכֵּם֩ | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Joshua 3:1 | 1 |
| וַ֠/יַּשְׁכֵּם | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Kings 6:15 | 1 |
| מַשְׁכִּ֣ים | Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Hosea 13:3 | 1 |
| מַשְׁכִּ֥ים | Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Hosea 6:4 | 1 |
| מַשְׁכִּ֪ימֵי | Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Psalms 127:2 | 1 |
| מַשְׁכִּימֵ֥י | Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct | Isaiah 5:11 | 1 |
| נַשְׁכִּ֨ימָה֙ | Verb, Hiphil, Cohortative, 1st Person, Common, Plural | Song of Solomon 7:12 | 1 |
| תַּשְׁכִּ֖ים | Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Judges 9:33 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7925, 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 60 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 64 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 19:2
- Exodus 8:20
- Numbers 14:40
- Joshua 3:1
- Judges 6:28
- 1 Samuel 1:19
- 2 Samuel 15:2
- 2 Kings 3:22
- 2 Chronicles 20:20
- Job 1:5
- Psalms 127:2
- Proverbs 27:14
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.
