Hebrew word · H5447
סֵ֫בֶל
sevel
burden
A carried load, and the labor of carrying it, especially labor imposed by a ruler (what historians call corvée: compulsory work owed to the state). The noun is rare, appearing only here, in 1 Kings 11:28 and in Nehemiah 4:17 (Hebrew 4:11).
Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
load, burden
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A carried load, and the labor of carrying it, especially labor imposed by a ruler (what historians call corvée: compulsory work owed to the state). The noun is rare, appearing only here, in 1 Kings 11:28 and in Nehemiah 4:17 (Hebrew 4:11).
- Against the English
All the supplied versions say 'burden', which is accurate but has become soft in modern English. NIV and NASB also keep 'burden'. NLT's 'load' keeps the physical picture better.
- How it drifted
'Burden' now most often means an emotional or spiritual weight, such as worry, guilt or responsibility. The Hebrew word here names something a man carries on his back under orders.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Closely related words: Exodus 1:11, 2:11, 5:4-5 and 6:6-7 use siblōt for Israel's forced labor in Egypt, and Exodus 6:6 promises 'I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians'. Genesis 49:15 has Issachar bend his shoulder 'to carry' and become a forced laborer. Isaiah 9:4, 10:27 and 14:25 use sōvel with 'shoulder' for Assyrian oppression. 1 Kings 11:28 uses this exact noun for the labor levy on 'the house of Joseph' under Solomon. The Akkadian verb zabālu, 'to carry', comes from the same root.
Where it appears
1 Kings · 1
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1 Kings 11:28 סֵ֖בֶל [the] forced labor of
Now Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor. So when Solomon noticed that the young man was industrious, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph.
Nehemiah · 1
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Nehemiah 4:17 בַּסֶּ֖בֶל in <the> burden
who were rebuilding the wall. The laborers who carried materials worked with one hand and held a weapon with the other.
Psalms · 1
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Psalm 81:6 מִסֵּ֣בֶל from a burden
“I relieved his shoulder of the burden; his hands were freed from the basket.
Here: 'From a load': the physical weight a laborer hauls, and by extension the forced labor itself. In a psalm recalling Egypt it points to the slave gangs of Exodus, whose 'burdens' are named with a closely related word.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.