Hebrew word · H7620

שָׁבוּעַ

shavua'

seven

A unit made of seven. Most often a week of seven days (Gen 29:27–28; Lev 12:5; the Feast of Weeks, Deut 16:9–10). But the core idea is 'a seven', and what is being counted depends on context. The masculine plural here (normally shāvuʿôt) is rare.

Appears 20 times in 17 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) seven, period of seven (days or years), heptad, week

1a) period of seven days, a week

1a1) Feast of Weeks

1b) heptad, seven (of years)

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 Daniel 9:24

Range of meaning

A unit made of seven. Most often a week of seven days (Gen 29:27–28; Lev 12:5; the Feast of Weeks, Deut 16:9–10). But the core idea is 'a seven', and what is being counted depends on context. The masculine plural here (normally shāvuʿôt) is rare.

Against the English

KJV, ESV, NASB, BSB and WEB say 'weeks', which to a modern reader means seven days. NIV ('sevens') and NLT ('sets of seven') bring out the bare idea of a heptad (a group of seven).

How it drifted

English 'week' has narrowed to the seven-day calendar unit. Hebrew shāvuaʿ kept the broader sense of 'a seven'. Daniel 10:2–3 shows this: to mean ordinary weeks it has to add 'of days' ('three sevens of days'), so without that addition the unit is open.

Used elsewhere in the period

Leviticus 25:8 already counts 'seven sabbaths of years', the seven-year cycles that lead to the Jubilee (49 years). Leviticus 26:18–28 threatens punishment 'seven times' for covenant breach, and 2 Chronicles 36:21 ties Jeremiah's seventy years to the land's missed sabbaths. Later Jewish writings count history in 'weeks' and jubilees: the book of Jubilees, 1 Enoch's 'Apocalypse of Weeks' (1 En 93; 91), Testament of Levi 16–17 ('seventy weeks'), and 11QMelchizedek from Qumran, which places a final release and atonement in the 'tenth jubilee'.

From the study of Daniel 9:25

Range of meaning

A unit of seven, a "heptad". Usually it means a week of days, but the word itself only means "a seven". Daniel uses an unusual masculine plural; the Torah uses the feminine shavuʿot for the weeks before the Feast of Weeks.

Against the English

"Weeks" (KJV, BSB, ESV, NASB, WEB) makes a modern reader think of seven days. NIV's "'sevens'" and NLT's "sets of seven" leave the unit open, which is closer to the Hebrew.

How it drifted

"Week" is the ordinary meaning in both Hebrew and English. Here, though, the setting shows that sevens of years are meant.

Used elsewhere in the period

The background is Daniel 9:2, where Daniel reads Jeremiah's 70 years (Jer 25:11–12; 29:10), and 2 Chronicles 36:21, which links those 70 years to the land "keeping its sabbaths" (Lev 26:34–35, 43). Leviticus 25:8 counts "seven sabbaths of years", that is, 49 years to the jubilee. In Daniel 10:2–3 the writer has to add "of days" (shavuʿim yamim) to mean ordinary weeks, which suggests the bare word in chapter 9 does not mean days. The Book of Jubilees and some Qumran texts (e.g. 11QMelchizedek, 4Q180–181) also divide history into weeks of years and jubilees.

From the study of Daniel 9:27

Range of meaning

A unit of seven, from sheva, 'seven'. In ordinary use it is a week of days (Genesis 29:27; the Feast of 'Weeks'). It can be any group of seven, and here, from context, a seven of years.

Against the English

'Week' (KJV, ESV, BSB, NASB) suggests seven days. NIV's 'one "seven"' keeps the neutral sense.

How it drifted

English 'week' only ever means seven days, so the reader loses the idea of a 'seven' as a counting unit.

Used elsewhere in the period

Daniel 9:2 starts from Jeremiah's 'seventy years' (Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10). 2 Chronicles 36:21 ties those years to the land's unkept Sabbath years. Leviticus 25:8 counts 'seven sabbaths of years' to the Jubilee. When Daniel means days, he says so: 'three weeks of days' (10:2–3). Jubilees and the Dead Sea Scrolls also reckon history in weeks of years and jubilees.

Where it appears

Genesis · 2

  1. Genesis 29:27 שְׁבֻ֣עַ [the] week of

    Finish this week’s celebration, and we will give you the younger one in return for another seven years of work.”

  2. Genesis 29:28 שְׁבֻ֣עַ [the] week of

    And Jacob did just that. He finished the week’s celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 34:22 שָׁבֻעֹת֙ weeks

    And you are to celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

    Here: Plural of 'week' (a unit of seven days). It names the festival by the seven weeks counted from the start of the grain harvest. That counting is spelled out in Leviticus 23:15–16 and Deuteronomy 16:9.

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 12:5 שְׁבֻעַ֖יִם two weeks

    If, however, she gives birth to a daughter, the woman will be unclean for two weeks as she is during her menstruation. Then she must continue in purification from her bleeding for sixty-six days.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 28:26 בְּשָׁבֻעֹ֖תֵיכֶ֑ם at weeks your

    On the day of firstfruits, when you present an offering of new grain to the LORD during the Feast of Weeks, you are to hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work.

Deuteronomy · 4

  1. Deuteronomy 16:9 שָׁבֻעֹ֖ת שָׁבֻעֽוֹת׃ weeks

    You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.

  2. Deuteronomy 16:10 שָׁבֻעוֹת֙ weeks

    And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you,

  3. Deuteronomy 16:16 הַשָּׁבֻע֖וֹת the weeks

    Three times a year all your men are to appear before the LORD your God in the place He will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed.

    Here: 'The Weeks': the wheat-harvest feast, counted seven weeks from when the sickle is first put to the grain (16:9). In Greek it was later called Pentecost, 'fiftieth [day].'

2 Chronicles · 1

  1. 2 Chronicles 8:13 הַשָּׁבֻע֖וֹת the weeks

    He observed the daily requirement for offerings according to the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 5:24 שְׁבֻע֛וֹת [the] weeks of

    They have not said in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rains, both autumn and spring, in season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of harvest.’

    Here: The fixed run of weeks of the grain harvest, the seven weeks counted from the barley harvest to the wheat harvest (Deut 16:9). This is the same word that names the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot).

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 45:21 שְׁבֻע֣וֹת weeks

    On the fourteenth day of the first month you are to observe the Passover, a feast of seven days, during which unleavened bread shall be eaten.

Daniel · 8

  1. Daniel 9:24 שָׁבֻעִ֨ים sevens

    Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.

    Here: A 'seven', meaning a block of seven units. Here the units are years, so each one is a 'week of years'. It comes first in the sentence for emphasis. The masculine plural form is unusual: elsewhere the word normally takes the plural shāvuʿôt.

  2. Daniel 9:25 שָׁבֻעִ֖ים וְשָׁבֻעִ֞ים sevens, and sevens

    Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress.

    Here: "Sevens." Here these are units of seven years, following the 70 weeks of v. 24 that reinterpret Jeremiah's 70 years.

  3. Daniel 9:26 הַשָּׁבֻעִים֙ the sevens

    Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.

    Here: 'The sevens', with the article. It points back to the sixty-two sevens just named in verse 25. Each unit is a period of seven, which in this chapter almost certainly means seven years. It does not mean a seven-day week.

  4. Daniel 9:27 שָׁב֣וּעַ הַשָּׁב֜וּעַ seven, the seven

    And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.”

    Here: 'A seven', the last of the 'seventy sevens' of 9:24. Most readers of every school take it as a unit of seven years, not seven days.

  5. Daniel 10:2 שָׁבֻעִ֖ים sevens

    In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks.

  6. Daniel 10:3 שָׁבֻעִ֖ים sevens

    I ate no rich food, no meat or wine entered my mouth, and I did not anoint myself with oil until the three weeks were completed.

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