Hebrew word · H7581

שְׁאָגָה

she'agah

roaring

A roar. It is used of lions and of a human's loud, uncontrolled cry of anguish, a groan from deep inside.

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 23, 2026

What it means

1) roaring

1a) of lion, the wicked, distress cry

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: A roar. It is used of lions and of a human's loud, uncontrolled cry of anguish, a groan from deep inside.
Against the English: KJV and YLT keep “roaring.” ESV, WEB and BSB soften it to “groaning” and NIV to “cries of anguish.” The softer words lose the loudness and the animal force, and they hide the deliberate link to the roaring lions later in the psalm.
Used elsewhere in the period: It is used of a lion's roar in Job 4:10 and Isaiah 5:29 (the verb), and of human anguish in Job 3:24 (“my roarings pour out like water”), Psalm 32:3 (“my roaring all day long”) and Psalm 38:8 (“I roar because of the turmoil of my heart”). In Psalm 22:13 the enemies are “a lion tearing and roaring” (same root), and in v.21 the plea is “save me from the lion's mouth.”

Range of meaning: Roar: above all the roar of a lion; also a human's loud cry of anguish, a groan that is more howl than sigh. The related verb is used of lions, of thunder, and of God "roaring" from Zion.
Against the English: KJV and YLT "roaring" keep the force; BSB/ESV/NIV/WEB "groaning" sounds quieter and more inward. Modern ears may also hear "roaring" as anger, which it is not here.
How it drifted: "Groaning" is chosen because "roaring" sounds odd of a human in English, but it softens a raw, animal-like cry.
Used elsewhere in the period: Isa 5:29; Zech 11:3; Job 4:10 (lions' roaring); Job 3:24 ("my roarings pour out like water"); Ps 22:1 ("far from saving me are the words of my roaring"); Ps 38:8 ("I roar because of the turmoil of my heart", same root). Amos 1:2; 3:8 for the verb of God.

Job · 2

Job 3:24 שַׁאֲגֹתָֽי׃ cries of distress my

I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.
Job 4:10 שַׁאֲגַ֣ת [the] roaring of

The lion may roar, and the fierce lion may growl, yet the teeth of the young lions are broken.

Psalms · 2

Psalm 22:1 שַׁאֲגָתִֽי׃ cry of distress my

For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?

Here: “My roaring.” The word is used for a lion's roar and for a person's loud, raw cry of pain. Later in the psalm the enemies are lions “roaring” at him (v.13, same root), so the hunted man is roaring too, but his roar brings no help.
Psalm 32:3 בְּ֝שַׁאֲגָתִ֗י in cry of distress my

When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.

Here: "In/through my roaring": the word for a lion's roar, used for a person's loud, raw cry of anguish. It makes a deliberate paradox with "I kept silent": he was silent about the one thing that mattered while howling with pain.

Isaiah · 1

Isaiah 5:29 שְׁאָגָ֥ה roaring

Their roaring is like that of a lion; they roar like young lions. They growl and seize their prey; they carry it away, and no one can rescue it.

Here: The full-throated roar of a lion, the sound that announces a predator and freezes its prey. It is the first thing heard of the coming army: noise before sight.

Ezekiel · 1

Ezekiel 19:7 שַׁאֲגָתֽוֹ׃ roaring its

He broke down their strongholds and devastated their cities. The land and everything in it shuddered at the sound of his roaring.

Zechariah · 1

Zechariah 11:3 שַׁאֲגַ֣ת [the] roaring of

Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory is in ruins. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed.

Here: The deep roar of a lion. Elsewhere a lion's roar signals threat or a kill; here it is a roar of distress, a lion bellowing over its lost home.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.