שְׁכֵן
to dwell
‘to dwell’ is one of 3 main senses 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.
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”).
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (50%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (50%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 2 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H7932 appears — 2 distinct verses across 2 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.
Ezra 1 verse
Daniel 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.
The Hebrew verb שכן centers on the idea of “to dwell.” It occurs a mere 2 verses across Scripture. The word gravitates to Ezra (50%), then Daniel. Its earliest occurrence is Ezra 6:12. Read the stem: it spans 2 stems, including Peal and Pael. Dig into 2-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H7932 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 →
- 2
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 2 distinct verses.
- 2 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 2 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #4,807
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 4,807 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 2 occurrences in the concordance →
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 2 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 100%
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: Dwell 1×, Had their habitation 1×
- American Standard Version: Dwell 1×, Had their habitation 1×
- Berean Standard Bible: Dwell 1×, Nested 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Dwell 1×, Has caused 1×, Lived 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7932 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H7932 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H7932 across 2 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H7932 across 3 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
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 Peal (the basic Aramaic stem, parallel to Qal) and Pael (the intensive Aramaic stem, parallel to 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 2 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.
Peal
- . dwell, of birds
Pael
- . causat.: of God, cause his name to dwell there.
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
Derived from שכן (shâkan) (H7931) — to dwell.
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.
שָׁכַן
- v. כון, to dwell, rest. Ḥull. 65ᵃ ש׳ עם הטמאים טמא a bird (of which you do not know whether it is clean or unclean) that nests with unclean birds, is unclean. B. Kam. 92ᵇ (quot. from an unknown writing, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note 7) כל עוף למינו יִשְׁכּוֹן וכ׳ every bird nests with its kind, and man with his like; Yalk. Gen. 116; Yalk. Jud. 67. Tanḥ. Noah 15 אין הקללה שׁוֹכֶנֶת וכ׳ (Gen. R. s. 36 הוָֹה) curse does not rest (take effect) where blessing has been pronounced; a. fr.
- 1. to cause to dwell, establish. Ber. 12ᵃ מי שש׳ את שמו הוא יַשְׁכִּין וכ׳ may he who caused his name to dwell in this house, let dwell among you love and brotherhood &c. Ib. 16ᵇ שתְּשַׁכֵּן (or שתַּשְׁכֵּן), v. פּוּר. Gen. R. s. 64 (ref. to שְׁכֹן, Gen. XXVI, 2) שׁכֵּן השכינה בארץ let the Shechinah rest in the land (do not cause the Shechinah to move with thee to a foreign land); Yalk. ib. 111. Pirké d’R. El. ch. XXXVI איני יכול לשַׁכֵּן שכינתי עליך וכ׳ I cannot let my Shechinah (holy inspiration) rest upon thee in a foreign land; a. fr.—2) to make prosperous. Num. R. s. 143 שבשבילו ש׳ ה׳ לאדוניו because for his (Joseph’s) sake the Lord prospered his master; [Matt. K.; the Lord revealed himself to his master, v. Gen. R. s. 86, end].—[Gen. R. s. 34 שיכן בזכות, v. שִׁיכּוּן.] e.g. Genesis 26:2
- to cause to dwell. Cant. R. to V, 1 (ref. to Ps. XXXVII, 29) יַשְׁכִּינוּ לשכינה וכ׳ they cause the Shechinah to dwell on earth; ib. הצדיקים הִשְׁכִּינוּ וכ׳ the righteous (Abraham, Isaac etc.) brought the Shechinah down to earth. Ber. 12ᵃ, v. supra; a. e. e.g. Psalms 37:29
שְׁכַן
- 1. to dwell, sit, nest. Targ. Ps. CIV, 12 Ms. (ed. יִשְׁרוּן).—Gen. R. s. 65 וכל עוף דש׳ וכ׳ and whatever bird will nest with it (the starling, v. זַרְזִיר II), to its kind will it belong; Yalk. Ps. 794 דיִשְׁכּוֹן; ib. אתא … וש׳ גביה the Egyptian raven came and joined it; a. e.
- 2. to rest, settle. Ḥull. 26ᵇ שָׁכְנֵי תיתאי, v. קְפֵי. Ib. 111ᵇ, v. קְפֵי.
- 1. to cause to dwell. Targ. Cant. III, 10 (not דשְׁכֵין).
- 2. to fix, appoint. Y. Ab. Zar. I, 39ᵈ top שַׁכְּנִית, v. ארקליס.
שָׁכֵן
- preced.) settler, neighbor. Keth. 85ᵇ ש׳ ותלמיד חכם וכ׳ if a neighbor (of the deceased) and a scholar (of the same name claim a legacy), the scholar is preferred; B. Mets. 108ᵇ ש׳ ותלמיד וכ׳ if a neighbor and a scholar want to buy a field, the scholar has the preemption. Ab. I, 7 הרחק מש׳ רע keep away from a bad neighbor. Ib. II, 9. Neg. XII, 6 (prov.) אוי לרשע אוי לשְׁכֵנוֹ woe to the wicked, and woe to his neighbor; Num. R. s. 185; a. fr.—Y. Ab. Zar. II, end, 42ᵃ (mixed dict.) ש׳ חד הוה לנא וכ׳ we had one (gentile) neighbor &c.—Pl. שְׁכֵנִים, שְׁכֵי׳. Keth. l. c. שניהם קרובים ושניהם ש׳ וכ׳ if both claimants are relatives (of the deceased), or both neighbors, or both scholars, it is left to the discretion of the judges (v. שׁוּדָא). B. Mets. l. c. שְׁכֵינֵי העיר ושְׁכֵינֵי שדה וכ׳ if neighbors in the town and neighbors in the field (want to buy a field), the city neighbors have the pre-emption. Sot. I, 4 (address to the suspected adulteress) הרבה ש׳ הרעים וכ׳ bad neighbors do much (may have influenced you). Keth. 72ᵃ שמשיאתו שם רע בשְׁכֵינָיו she is the cause of his bearing a bad name among his neighbors; a. fr.—Fem. שְׁכֵנָה, שְׁכֵי׳. Y. Bets. II, end, 61ᵈ שְׁכֵינָתוֹ היתה it was his neighbor’s wife that did it; ויש … על שכינתו is a man punished for what his neighboress does?; a. e.—Pl. שְׁכֵינוֹת. Keth. l. c. משיאה … בשְׁכֵיניֹתֶיהָ he is the cause of her bearing a bad name among her neighbors; a. e.
שָׁכֵן ²
- , v. שְׁכֵינָא
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 2 distinct written forms H7932 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| יִשְׁכְּנָ֖ן | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Daniel 4:21 | 1 |
| שַׁכִּ֧ן | Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Ezra 6:12 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7932, 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.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 6 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 2 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 2 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.
