Hebrew word · H7648

שֹׂ֫בַע

soa'

satiety

Satiety, plenty, having eaten enough. The root śbʿ is used most often for food: being filled, satisfied, having enough (BDB, HALOT). It can also be used figuratively for being 'full of' days, trouble, or good things.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) satiety, abundance, fulness

1a) satiety

1b) abundance

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 Psalm 16:11

Range of meaning

Satiety, plenty, having eaten enough. The root śbʿ is used most often for food: being filled, satisfied, having enough (BDB, HALOT). It can also be used figuratively for being 'full of' days, trouble, or good things.

Against the English

KJV, ESV and NASB render 'fulness of joy'. This is accurate, but 'fullness' can sound abstract. The Hebrew word carries the bodily feeling of being well fed. BSB and NIV turn it into a verb, 'you will fill me with joy', following the Greek version. They keep the idea of filling but lose the noun picture of a full table.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same root closes the next psalm: 'I will be satisfied (ʾeśbəʿâ) when I awake, with your likeness' (Ps 17:15), where it is paired with seeing God's face. Psalm 36:8 says 'they feast on the abundance of your house.' Psalm 63:5 says 'my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food.' Psalm 65:4 says 'we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.' The Greek Septuagint renders it with a verb, plērōseis me, 'you will fill me.'

From the study of Ruth 2:18

Range of meaning

Fullness, satisfaction, plenty, from the verb sabaʿ, 'to eat one's fill, be satisfied.' It can mean eating to satisfaction, a time of plenty (the 'years of plenty' in Gen 41), or abundance in general.

Against the English

KJV 'after she was sufficed' is archaic but correct ('sufficed' = had enough). BSB 'saved from her meal' is smooth but drops the idea of fullness. YLT 'from her satiety' keeps it.

How it drifted

KJV 'sufficed' has dropped out of everyday English in this sense, so readers may not see that it means 'had all she wanted to eat.'

Used elsewhere in the period

Same root in v.14: 'she ate and was satisfied (wattisbaʿ) and had some left over.' A related pattern appears in 2 Kgs 4:43–44 ('they shall eat and have some left') and Deut 8:10 ('you shall eat and be full'). In those passages eating your fill with food to spare is a sign of God's provision.

From the study of Leviticus 26:5

Range of meaning

Satiety, fullness, having enough. The related verb is sava', to be satisfied or full. The phrase la-sova' ('to fullness') appears in Exodus 16:3 (the Israelites remembering eating bread 'to the full' in Egypt), Leviticus 25:19, Deuteronomy 23:24 and Ruth 2:18.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'to the full', BSB 'have your fill' and NIV 'all the food you want' all work. None of them, on its own, shows the deliberate echo with the curse later in the chapter.

Used elsewhere in the period

Leviticus 26:26 is the mirror image: 'ten women will bake your bread in one oven... you will eat and not be satisfied (lo tisba'u)'. Leviticus 25:19 already promised 'you will eat to the full and dwell securely'. Ancient Near Eastern treaty curses often threaten eating without being filled, as in the Assyrian treaties of Esarhaddon.

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 16:3 לָשֹׂ֑בַע to abundance

    “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”

    Here: “To fullness,” meaning eating until satisfied. God answers with the same word: “bread in the morning to the full” (vv. 8, 12).

Leviticus · 2

  1. Leviticus 25:19 לָשֹׂ֑בַע to abundance

    Then the land will yield its fruit, so that you can eat your fill and dwell in safety in the land.

  2. Leviticus 26:5 לָשֹׂ֔בַע to abundance

    Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; you will have your fill of food to eat and will dwell securely in your land.

    Here: 'To the point of being full'. It means having eaten enough, the opposite of famine rationing. It deliberately mirrors the curse in v. 26: 'you will eat and not be satisfied'.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 23:24 שָׂבְעֶ֑ךָ satiety your

    When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not put any in your basket.

Ruth · 1

  1. Ruth 2:18 מִשָּׂבְעָֽהּ׃ from abundance her

    She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out what she had saved from her meal and gave it to Naomi.

    Here: 'From her fullness': what remained after she had eaten all she wanted. The point is surplus, not scraps. Boaz gave her more than one person could eat.

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 16:11 שֹׂ֣בַע abundance of

    You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

    Here: The state of someone who has eaten their fill. It is a meal word: joy you are filled with, the way a feast leaves you full. 'Fullness' is accurate if it keeps that sense of satisfied appetite.

  2. Psalm 78:25 לָשֹֽׂבַע׃ to satiety

    Man ate the bread of angels; He sent them food in abundance.

    Here: 'To fullness', meaning until they were satisfied, as much as they could eat. It echoes the exact phrase of Exodus 16:3, 8 ('bread to the full'), and it prepares for the bitter turn in verses 29–31, where being 'well filled' leads to judgment.

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 13:25 לְשֹׂ֣בַע to [the] satiety of

    A righteous man eats to his heart’s content, but the stomach of the wicked is empty.

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