Hebrew word · H7582

שָׁאָה

tisha'eh

to crash

BDB lists sha'ah as 'make a din, crash into ruins', and the Niphal (passive) as 'be crashed into ruin, be desolated'. The related noun sho'ah means 'ruin, devastation, a crashing storm'. The idea joins sound and destruction: the roar of collapse and the silence of the rubble afterwards.

Appears 6 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) crash, make a din or crash, crash into ruins, be in ruins, be desolated

1a) (Qal) to crash into ruins

1b) (Niphal)

1b1) to be ruined

1b2) to crash

1b3) to be left (a desolation)

1c) (Hiphil)

1c1) to cause to crash

1c2) to cause to be desolated

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

From the study of Isaiah 6:11

Range of meaning

BDB lists sha'ah as 'make a din, crash into ruins', and the Niphal (passive) as 'be crashed into ruin, be desolated'. The related noun sho'ah means 'ruin, devastation, a crashing storm'. The idea joins sound and destruction: the roar of collapse and the silence of the rubble afterwards.

Against the English

'Lie waste', 'lie ruined', 'be devastated' (BSB, KJV, WEB) get the result across. They lose the sense of violent collapse and the fact that the same verb opens and closes God's answer.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 37:26 / 2 Kgs 19:25: 'to make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins' (Hiphil, of Assyria's conquests). The roaring of nations in Isa 17:12–13 uses the closely related idea of crashing noise. The noun appears in Isa 10:3 and 47:11, and in Zeph 1:15, 'a day of ruin and devastation (sho'ah umesho'ah)'.

From the study of Isaiah 37:26

Range of meaning

To crash or roar (compare the related noun šāʾôn, 'roar, din'). Used of cities, it means to crash into ruin or to lie desolate. The causative form, used only here and in 2 Kgs 19:25, means 'to make crash into ruins'.

Against the English

ESV keeps the noise of the verb with 'crash'. NIV ('turned … into'), NASB ('turn … into') and KJV ('lay waste') give the result but lose the sound. BSB 'crush' is vivid but slightly different: a crushing rather than a crash.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 6:11: 'until cities crash into ruin (šāʾû ʿārîm) without inhabitant.' The only other uses of the root for cities are in Isaiah, which may be a deliberate echo.

Where it appears

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 19:25 לַהְשׁ֛וֹת [about] to make desolate

    Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.

Isaiah · 5

  1. Isaiah 6:11 שָׁא֨וּ תִּשָּׁאֶ֥ה they have lain desolate, it will be devastated

    Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,

    Here: The verb pictures a crash: walls and roofs coming down in a roar of collapse, leaving rubble. The tense looks to the end-point: 'until they have become ruins'.

  2. Isaiah 17:12 יִשָּׁאֽוּן׃ they are in an uproar !

    Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.

    Here: 'They crash / thunder', with the same extra '-un' ending as yehĕmāyûn. The two half-lines end on matching sounds, like the boom of two waves.

  3. Isaiah 17:13 יִשָּׁא֔וּן they are in an uproar !

    The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.

    Here: 'They roar' — the same root as the noun just before, so the line literally says 'nations roar like the roar of waters.' The doubled sound imitates the thunder of surf.

  4. Isaiah 37:26 לְהַשְׁא֛וֹת [about] to make desolate

    Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it; in days of old I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should crush fortified cities into piles of rubble.

    Here: 'To make crash', a causative infinitive. The root suggests a roar or crash, and with cities it means falling into ruin. Isaiah used the same root in his call vision: 'until cities crash into ruin (šāʾû)' (6:11).

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