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שָׁלַךְ

to throw

also: cast, hurl, fling fuller range ↓

H7993 Strong's Hebrew
shâlak Transliteration
/shaw-lak/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 125 appearances

Compare with another word →

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.

שלך (shâlak) is a Hebrew verb most often rendered “to throw.” The King James Version usually renders it “cast,” while modern versions prefer “threw” (Berean Standard Bible) and “he threw” (unfoldingWord Literal Text) — see the renderings breakdown. With 121 verses in 26 books, it is a common word in the Hebrew Bible. Debuting at Genesis 21:15, it then recurs through the corpus. It also covers “cast”, “hurl”, and “fling”, alongside “to throw” — see its full sense range. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
adventure
Modern gloss
to throw
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H7993 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 →

121
distinct verses
The word appears in 121 distinct verses.
26 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 26 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 21:15
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 21:15.
Zechariah 11:13
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Zechariah 11:13.
#352
by frequency
Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 352 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 121 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 21 · 17%
  • Historical 42 · 35%
  • Wisdom 16 · 13%
  • Prophets 42 · 35%

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 121 distinct verses.

  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 72 verses · 60%
  • Writings (Ketuvim) 28 verses · 23%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 21 verses · 17%

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: Cast 39×, Cast away 5×, He cast 5×
  • American Standard Version: Cast 30×, He cast 6×, Cast away 4×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Threw 14×, Cast 7×, Throw 7×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: He threw 10×, Threw 9×, They threw 7×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H7993 across 125 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Cast” 39×
  • “Cast away” 5×
  • “He cast” 5×
  • “Cast down” 4×
  • “Shall be cast out” 3×
  • “Will i cast out” 3×
  • “I cast” 2×
  • “I will cast” 2×
  • “Shall cast” 2×
  • “Ye shall cast” 2×

Plus 58 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 H7993 across 124 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Cast” 30×
  • “He cast” 6×
  • “Cast away” 4×
  • “Shall be cast out” 3×
  • “Him” 2×
  • “Or hurled” 2×
  • “Shall cast” 2×
  • “Them” 2×
  • “Thou didst cast” 2×
  • “Until he had cast them out” 2×
  • “Was cast down” 2×
  • “Will i cast” 2×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 63 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 H7993 across 125 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Threw” 14×
  • “Cast” 7×
  • “Throw” 7×
  • “Thrown” 5×
  • “Cast away” 4×
  • “Dropped” 3×
  • “Throw him” 3×
  • “Cast down” 2×
  • “He finally banished” 2×
  • “I toss” 2×
  • “I will cast” 2×
  • “Lying” 2×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 70 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 H7993 across 138 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “He threw” 10×
  • “Threw” 9×
  • “They threw” 7×
  • “And” 6×
  • “Thrown” 6×
  • “Throw” 5×
  • “It” 3×
  • “Throw away” 3×
  • “Throw him” 3×
  • “Away” 2×
  • “Cast” 2×
  • “Cast me away” 2×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 58 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


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 4 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.

Hophal

  • 1. be thrown, cast
  • 2. be cast forth, out
  • 3. be cast down
  • 4. metaph., be cast

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

[ שָׁלַךְ ] 125 vb. Hiph. 112 throw, fling, cast

— 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

Part of speech: Verb TWOT: 2398


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.

שָׁלַךְ

  • , Hif. הִשְׁלִיךְ (b. h.) to cast off, throw down. Erub. 22ᵃ; Yalk. Deut. 846 להַשְׁלִיכוֹ, v. מַשּׂוֹא. Tanḥ. Sh’mini 11 הבחורים … ומַשְׁלִיכִין חומר וכ׳ young men and boys struck him (the drunken man) and cast mud in his face. Midr. Prov. ch. I נַשְׁלִיךְ אותו לבור let us cast him into a pit. Ib. נטל חכה והִשְׁלִיכָהּ לים he took a hook and threw it into the sea. Lam. R. to II, 1 הִשְׁלִיכוֹ לארץ he cast him off (his shoulder and) to the ground; a. fr.
    • to be thrown. Tanḥ. Vayesh. 2 כיון שה׳ לבור וכ׳ when he was thrown into the pit, his face changed &c. Tanḥ. Noah 10 ברשותו הוּשְׁלַכְנוּ וכ׳ by his order we have been thrown (into the furnace) &c.; a. e.—Part. מוּשְׁלָךְ; f. מוּשְׁלֶכֶת &c. Gen. R. s. 8; Yalk. ib. 13, v. בלורין. Sifré Deut. 43 נבלת … שהיתה מוש׳ וכ׳ the corpse of J.… which lay exposed to heat in day-time and to cold &c. Midr. Prov. l. c. טורח … מוש׳ עליו the care for the household was thrown upon him (Reuben).
    • same. Ex. R. s. 20 ולמה … נִשְׁלַכְתִּי לתוכה וכ׳ why did not Moses strike it (the Nile)? He said, I have been thrown into it, and it did not harm me &c.; a. e.

שָׁלָךְ

  • (b. h.) name of a bird of prey, cormorant. Ḥull. 63ᵃ, v. שָׁלָה I.

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 108 distinct written forms H7993 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
הִשְׁלִ֥יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Amos 8:3 3
וַ/יַּשְׁלֵ֤ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 32:19 3
וַ/יַּשְׁלֵ֥ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Kings 19:19 3
וַ/יַּשְׁלֵךְ֙ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 15:25 3
מֻשְׁלֶ֣כֶת Verb, Hophal, Participle Passive, Feminine, Singular, Absolute 1 Kings 13:24 3
וְ/הִשְׁלַכְתִּ֥י Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Nahum 3:6 2
אַשְׁלִ֣יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Psalms 60:8 2
הִשְׁלִ֖יכוּ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Jeremiah 9:19 2
הַשְׁלִ֣יכוּ Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Ezekiel 18:31 2
וַ/יַּשְׁלִ֥יכוּ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 2 Chronicles 24:10 2
וַ/יַּשְׁלֵ֖ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Chronicles 33:15 2
וַ/יַּשְׁלֶךְ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 2:21 2
אַשְׁלִ֖יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 2 Chronicles 7:20 1
אַשְׁלִ֥יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Job 29:17 1
אַשְׁלִ֨יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Joshua 18:8 1
הִשְׁלִ֔יכוּ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Ezekiel 20:8 1
הִשְׁלִ֣יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Joshua 10:11 1
הִשְׁלִ֣יכָה Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 2 Samuel 11:21 1
הִשְׁלִ֤יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Lamentations 2:1 1
הִשְׁלִ֥יכוּ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 2 Kings 7:15 1
הִשְׁלִ֨יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Jeremiah 41:9 1
הִשְׁלִיכ֥/וֹ Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct Jeremiah 52:3 1
הִשְׁלִיכָ֖/ם Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 17:20 1
הִשְׁלִיכָ֥/ם Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 13:23 1
הִשְׁלִכ֥/וֹ Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct 2 Kings 24:20 1
הִשְׁלַ֖כְתָּ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 Kings 14:9 1
הִשְׁלַ֛כְתָּ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 38:17 1
הִשְׁלַ֧כְתָּ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Nehemiah 9:11 1
הִשְׁלַ֨כְתִּי֙ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Jeremiah 7:15 1
הִשְׁלַכְתִּ֗י/ךָ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Ezekiel 28:17 1
הַשְׁלִ֔יכוּ Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Ezekiel 20:7 1
הַשְׁלִיכֵ֣/הוּ Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 4:3 1
הַשְׁלִיכֵ֨/הוּ֙ Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Zechariah 11:13 1
הַשְׁלִכֵ֔/הוּ Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 9:25 1
הַשְׁלִכֵ֛/הוּ Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 9:26 1
הַשְׁלֵ֤ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Psalms 55:22 1
הָשְׁלַ֣כְתִּי Verb, Hophal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Psalms 22:10 1
הָשְׁלַ֤כְתָּ Verb, Hophal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Isaiah 14:19 1
הֻשְׁלָ֔כָה Verb, Hophal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Ezekiel 19:12 1
וְ/הִשְׁלִ֔יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Joel 1:7 1
וְ/הִשְׁלִ֕יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Numbers 19:6 1
וְ/הִשְׁלִ֤יכוּ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Leviticus 14:40 1
וְ/הִשְׁלִ֥יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 Kings 23:12 1
וְ/הִשְׁלִ֨יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Leviticus 1:16 1
וְ/הִשְׁלִ֨יכוּ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Ezekiel 43:24 1
וְ/הִשְׁלַכְתּ֖/וֹ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Jeremiah 51:63 1
וְ/הִשְׁלַכְתֶּ֥נָה Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Plural Amos 4:3 1
וְ/הִשְׁלַכְתָּ֤ Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Ezekiel 5:4 1
וְ/הַשְׁלֵ֔ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute Jeremiah 22:19 1
וְ/הַשְׁלֵ֕ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Absolute Jeremiah 36:23 1
וְ/הַשְׁלֵ֥ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Exodus 7:9 1
וְ/הֻ֨שְׁלְכ֔וּ Verb, Hophal, Sequential Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural Jeremiah 22:28 1
וְ/הֻשְׁלַ֖ךְ Verb, Hophal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 8:11 1
וְ/יַשְׁלֵ֣ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Job 27:22 1
וְ/יַשְׁלֵ֥ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Job 15:33 1
וְ/נַשְׁלִ֖יכָה Verb, Hiphil, Cohortative, 1st Person, Common, Plural Psalms 2:3 1
וְ/נַשְׁלִכֵ֨/הוּ֙ Verb, Hiphil, Cohortative, 1st Person, Common, Plural Genesis 37:20 1
וְ/תַשְׁלִ֛יךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Micah 7:19 1
וְ/תַשְׁלֵ֤ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular Daniel 8:12 1
וְֽ/הַשְׁלִ֔יכִי Verb, Hiphil, Imperative, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular Jeremiah 7:29 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 48 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H7993, 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 111 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 121 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.

Reading settings

Reading text

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Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

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