שָׂבֵעַ

From the study of Proverbs 1:31

Range of meaning

To be satisfied, have enough, eat one's fill. It is positive when God feeds his people (Ps 145:16; Deut 8:10). It is negative when it means being glutted, having too much, or being fed up and sickened.

Against the English

'Be filled' (KJV, BSB, WEB) is accurate but neutral, and modern readers may hear 'satisfied' in a pleasant sense. NASB 'satiated' and the NLT's 'choking' come closer to the negative overtone that the context requires.

Used elsewhere in the period

Negative uses: Prov 25:16 ('lest you have your fill of [honey] and vomit it'), 25:17 ('lest he be sated with you and hate you'), Isa 1:11 ('I have had enough of burnt offerings'), Prov 14:14 ('the backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways'), a close parallel to this verse.

From the study of Ecclesiastes 5:10

Range of meaning

To be full, sated with food; by extension to be satisfied, to have enough, sometimes to have too much ('sated with days' Gen 25:8; 'sated with troubles' Ps 88:3). The noun śāvāʿ means fullness or plenty.

Against the English

BSB/KJV/WEB 'satisfied'. NIV 'never has enough' captures the result but drops the eating picture. 'Satisfied' in English can sound purely psychological, while the Hebrew is concrete: a stomach that stays empty.

Used elsewhere in the period

Qohelet uses it for appetites that never end: 'the eye is not sated with seeing' (1:8); the lone worker 'his eyes are not sated with riches' (4:8); 'all a man's toil is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not filled' (6:7). In Prov 27:20: 'Sheol and Abaddon are never sated, and the eyes of man are never sated.'

From the study of Isaiah 58:11

Range of meaning

Śābaʿ: to be full, to have eaten enough. The causative form used here means to fill someone. Nepeš: throat, appetite, the living self that hungers and desires, a life or person (HALOT; BDB). It is not a separable immaterial 'soul.'

Against the English

KJV 'satisfy thy soul' makes a modern reader think of spiritual or emotional fulfilment. BSB 'satisfy you,' NIV 'satisfy your needs,' and ESV/NASB 'satisfy your desire' come closer, though they lose the bodily hunger and the echo of verse 10.

How it drifted

English 'soul' came to mean the immaterial, eternal part of a person, under Greek philosophical and later Christian influence. The Hebrew nepeš is the hungry, breathing self.

Used elsewhere in the period

Same pairing in Ps 107:9 ('he satisfies the longing nepeš, and the hungry nepeš he fills with good things'); Prov 27:7 ('a sated nepeš loathes honey'). Isa 58:10 uses both words: 'if you pour out your nepeš to the hungry and satisfy (taśbîaʿ) the afflicted nepeš.'