שְׁלַח
to send
‘to send’ 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 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”).
- Qal Passive
- An archaic passive of the Qal, preserved in a few forms.
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”).
- Participle Passive
- A verbal adjective expressing action received (“written”).
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”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
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).
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 6 times (43%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (14%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 times (14%)
- Verb, Qal Passive, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (7%)
- Verb, Qal Passive, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 1 time (7%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural 1 time (7%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (7%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 14 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H7972 appears — 14 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 10 verses
- Ezra 4:11 שְׁלַ֣חוּ Qal pf 3mp This is the copy of the letter that they sent to Artaxerxes the king: Your servants the men beyond the River, and so forth.
- Ezra 4:14 שְׁלַ֖חְנָא Qal pf 1cp Now because we eat the salt of the palace, and it is not appropriate for us to see the king's dishonor, therefore have we sent and informed the king;
- Ezra 4:17 שְׁלַ֣ח Qal pf 3ms [Then] sent the king an answer to Rehum the chancellor, and to Shimshai the scribe, and to the rest of their companions who dwell in Samaria, and in the rest [of the country] beyond the River: Peace, and so forth.
- Ezra 4:18 שְׁלַחְתּ֖וּן Qal pf 2mp The letter which you sent to us has been plainly read before me.
- Ezra 5:6 שְׁלַ֞ח Qal pf 3ms The copy of the letter that Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, and Shetharbozenai, and his companions the Apharsachites, who were beyond the River, sent to Darius the king;
- Ezra 5:7 שְׁלַ֣חוּ Qal pf 3mp they sent a letter to him, in which was written thus: To Darius the king, all peace.
- Ezra 5:17 יִשְׁלַ֥ח Qal impf 3ms Now therefore, if it seem good to the king, let there be search made in the king's treasure-house, which is there at Babylon, whether it be so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem; and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.
- Ezra 6:12 יִשְׁלַ֣ח Qal impf 3ms and the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow all kings and peoples who shall put forth their hand to alter [the same], to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with all diligence.
- Ezra 6:13 שְׁלַ֞ח Qal pf 3ms Then Tattenai, the governor beyond the River, Shetharbozenai, and their companions, because that Darius the king had sent, did accordingly with all diligence.
- Ezra 7:14 שְׁלִ֔יחַ Qal Passive ptcp.pass ms Because you are sent of the king and his seven counselors, to inquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which is in your hand,
Daniel 4 verses
- Daniel 3:2 שְׁלַ֡ח Qal pf 3ms Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the satraps, the deputies, and the governors, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up.
- Daniel 3:28 שְׁלַ֤ח Qal pf 3ms Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel, and delivered his servants who trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and have yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.
- Daniel 5:24 שְׁלִ֖יַחַ Qal Passive pf 3ms Then was the part of the hand sent from before him, and this writing was inscribed.
- Daniel 6:22 שְׁלַ֣ח Qal pf 3ms My God has sent his angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me; because as before him innocence was found in me; and also before you, O king, have I done no hurt.
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.
At its core, שלח (shᵉlach) means “to send.” Its uses cluster heavily in Ezra (71% of all occurrences). With 14 verses in 2 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. First canonically at Ezra 4:11, it enters the text early. Catalogued under 3 senses, its meaning is not single-sense. 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 H7972 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 →
- 14
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 14 distinct verses.
- 2 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 2 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,910
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,910 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 14 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 14 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 14 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: Sent 4×, Hath sent 2×, They sent 2×
- American Standard Version: Sent 4×, Hath sent 2×, They sent 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Sent 4×, They sent 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Sent 4×, They sent 2×, Was sent 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H7972 across 14 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 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 H7972 across 14 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 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 H7972 across 14 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 8 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 H7972 across 14 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 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 send
(Peal)
- to send, send out
- to be sent
Word origin
Derived from שלח (shâlach) (H7971) — to send.
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.
שָׁלַח
- to draw out; to stretch forth; to send. Erub. III, 2 השׁוֹלֵחַ ערובו וכ׳ if one sends his ‘Erub (עֵרוּב) forth to be laid by a deaf and dumb person. Ḥull. 59ᵇ, a. fr. שָׁלְחוּ מתם they sent word from there (from Palestine to Babylonia). Gitt. IV, 1 השולח גט וכ׳ if a man sends a letter of divorce to his wife &c. B. Kam. VI, 4, v. בְּעֵרָה. Ib. ש׳ ביד פיקח (ib. 60ᵃ שִׁילֵּחַ) if he sent out fire through a sane person; a. fr.—Part. pass. שָׁלוּחַ q. v.—ש׳ יד ב־ [to stretch out a hand against,] to make illegitimate use of, to misappropriate (Ex. XXII, 10). B. Mets. III, 12 השולח יד בפקדון if a person makes use of a trust. Ib. החושב לִשְׁלוֹחַ יד וכ׳ if he declares his intention to use a trust; אינו חייב עד שיִשְׁלַח בו יד he is not responsible (for loss), until he has used it; a. fr. e.g. Exodus 22:10
- same, to send; to send away, dismiss. Bets. I, 9 אין מְשַׁלְּחִין בי"ט וכ׳ on the Holy Day you dare not send (to a friend) anything except portions (of eatables, ready for use); משלחין בהמה וכ׳ you may send cattle … alive or slaughtered. Ḥull. XII, 3 שִׁלְּחָהּ וחזרה if he sent the mother bird away, and she came back. Ib. אמר … ומְשַׁלֵּחַ הבנים if he says, I will take the mother, and send the young away; חייב לשַׁלֵּחַ he is bound to send her away. Gen. R. s. 21 שִׁלְּחוֹ מגן … ושלחו וכ׳ he banished him (Adam) from the paradise of this world and from that of the other world; a. fr.
- to be sent off; to be commissioned. Yoma VI, 2, a. e. המִשְׁתַּלֵּחַ the goat that is to be sent away (Lev. XVI, 10), the scapegoat. Ib. 1 נשפך … המשתלח if the blood (of the goat designated for sacrifice) was spilt, the scapegoat is to be put to death (cannot be used for the ceremony). Gen. R. s. 49 מעשה באחד שנש׳ לגבות וכ׳ it happened that one was commissioned to tax the inhabitants &c.; a. fr. e.g. Leviticus 16:10
שְׁלַח
- 1. to send, send off. Targ. Num. XIII, 2. Targ. O. ib. 16. Targ. Ps. XLIV, 3 Ms. (ed. פסד׳). Targ. Jer. XLII, 6 שָׁלְחִין (not שולחין); a. fr.—Part. pass. שְׁלִיחַ; f. שְׁלִיחָא; pl. שְׁלִיחִין, שְׁלִיחָן. Ob. I, 1. Targ. Is. XLIV, 26 שְׁלִיחוֹהִי ed. Lag. (ed. Wil. שְׁלוּח׳). Targ. I Chr. XIV, 15; a. fr.—Ber. 28ᵃ ש׳ להו וכ׳ R. J. sent them word to the school house; a. fr.—Koh. R. to III, 2 שְׁלִיחְהוֹן דברייתא the messenger of men (men’s guardian angel). e.g. Obadiah 1:1
- 2. to throw off, undress, flay (cmp. פָּשַׁט). Targ. Esth. V, 14. Targ. Is. XXXII, 11. Targ. II Chr. XXIX, 34; a. fr.—Ber. l. c. שְׁלַח מדך take off thy cloak (v. מַדָּא). Y. Taan. III, end, 67ᵃ הוה ש׳ מסאניה he took off one shoe; כד הוה ש׳ תריהון when he had taken off both of them; a. fr.—Part. pass. as ab. Sot. 8ᵇ (proverbial expression) ש׳ ערטילאי וכ׳ undressed, naked, but with shoes on (a person cares more for shoes than for any other article of dress); Keth. 65ᵇ top האי תנא ש׳ וכ׳ this Tannai (who gave the wife the right to ask for three pairs of shoes and one suit of clothes) seems to assume that a woman cares more for shoes &c. Koh. R. to V, 10 איך אינון אתיין שליחין וכ׳ (not שלו׳) how will they come (on resurrection day), naked, or dressed? Ib. היך זרעתין ש׳ וכ׳ how didst thou plant them (the beans), undressed or dressed (in the pods)? a. e.
- 1. to send; to send off, dismiss. Targ. O. Lev. XVI, 21, sq. Targ. O. Ex. VIII, 17; a. fr.—Part. pass. מְשַׁלַּח; f. מְשַׁלְּחָא &c. Targ. O. Gen. XXXII, 19.
- 2. to strip, undress. Y. R. Hash. II, 58ᵇ top ובטול … יְשַׁלַּח and in the shade of the fig tree he (the ox) would shed his skin (feeling warm, he would rub himself against the tree); Snh. 18ᵇ. Sabb. 33ᵇ הוו מְשַׁלְּחֵי מנייהו used to put off their clothes. Shebu. 41ᵃ צורבא דרבנן משלח וכ׳ may a scholar strip a man of his cloak? (i.e. should a scholar as such have any prerogatives in law?); a. fr.
- 1. to send off, let loose. Targ. O. Ex. VIII, 17.
- 2. to strip, throw off; to flay. Targ. I Sam. XIX, 24. Targ. II Chr. XXXV, 11. Targ. Lev. I, 6 (Y. II ויחליש). Targ. Num. XX, 26; a. fr.
- 1. to be sent, sent off. Targ. Jud. V, 15. Targ. Y. Gen. XXXII, 19; a. fr.
- 2. to be stripped; to shed the skin. Ib. III, 21.—Ḥull. 59ᵃ מאן … מִישְׁתַּלַּח משכיה he who eats three Tiḳlas of asafoetida on an empty stomach, will shed his skin; ואי לא … מישת׳ משכאי had I not sat in water, I should have &c.
שֶׁלַח I
- (preced.) hide, fresh skin. Makhsh. V, 6 החובט על הש׳ he who beats upon a (wetted) hide. Bekh. IX, 4 נשחטה … והש׳ קיים when its mother has been killed, but the hide is still intact. Tosef. Sabb. VIII (IX), 1; a. e.—Pl. שְׁלָחִין. Sabb. IV, 2 טומנין בש׳ you may keep dishes warm (for the Sabbath) in fresh hides. Ib. 49ᵃ ש׳ של בעה"ב hides belonging to a private man; של אומן to a mechanic (shoemaker &c.). Ib.ᵇ הביאו ש׳ וכ׳ bring us hides to sit down on them; a. e.
שֶׁלַח
- (שָׁלַח) [stripped of its skin,] a pressed olive the stone of which slips out at a touch.—Pl. שְׁלָחִין, שְׁלוּ׳. Ab. Zar. II, 7 (39ᵇ; Mish. a. Y. ed. שלו׳). Ib. 40ᵇ היכי דמי ש׳ וכ׳ when are they called Sh’laḥin? When the stone slips out as you take the olive in your hand.
שֶׁלַח III
- , pl. שְׁלָחִין (tradit. pronunc. שַׁלְחִין) (שלח; cmp. Job V, 10, a. Neh. III, 15) arms, ditches for irrigation; בית הש׳ (שדה) a field which needs irrigation, opp. בית הבעל (v. בַּעַל). M. Kat. I, 1. Tosef. ib. I, 1 שדה בית הש׳ שחרבה a field dependent on irrigation which has become dry. Ib. 4 השלוחין ed. Zuck. (Var. השלח׳). M. Kat. 2ᵃ מאי משמע דהאי בית הש׳ לישנא דצחותא וכ׳ what evidence is there that beth hash-sh’laḥin has the meaning of thirstiness (dryness)? Answ. ref. to מְשַׁלְהֵי for עָיֵף (v. שַׁלְהֵי I). B. Bath. IV, 7 בית הש׳ the fields belonging to a township; expl. ib. 68ᵃ באגי fields, גינונייתא gardens (ref. to Cant. IV, 13). Ib. 99ᵇ; a. e. e.g. Job 5:10
שֶׁלַח IV
- (שָׁלַח) extension, stepping space or depth of a step. Midd. II, 3; III, 6 ושִׁלְחָהּ אמה and the depth of each step was one cubit, v. רוּם II.
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 11 distinct written forms H7972 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| שְׁלַ֞ח | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Ezra 5:6 | 2 |
| שְׁלַ֣ח | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Daniel 6:22 | 2 |
| שְׁלַ֣חוּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Ezra 4:11 | 2 |
| יִשְׁלַ֣ח | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Ezra 6:12 | 1 |
| יִשְׁלַ֥ח | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Ezra 5:17 | 1 |
| שְׁלִ֔יחַ | Verb, Qal Passive, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Absolute | Ezra 7:14 | 1 |
| שְׁלִ֖יַחַ | Verb, Qal Passive, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Daniel 5:24 | 1 |
| שְׁלַ֖חְנָא | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural | Ezra 4:14 | 1 |
| שְׁלַ֡ח | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Daniel 3:2 | 1 |
| שְׁלַ֤ח | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Daniel 3:28 | 1 |
| שְׁלַחְתּ֖וּן | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Ezra 4:18 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7972, 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
- משלוח mishlôwach H4916 pasture
- שלוח shillûwach H7964 parting gift
- שלח shelach H7973 weapon
- שלחן shulchân H7979 table
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 7 — 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 13 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 14 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.
