Hebrew word · H7668

שֶׁ֫בֶר

shever

grain

The noun shever means grain, especially grain as something traded, rationed or bought in a famine. The matching verb shavar means "to buy grain". Its causative form (Hiphil) means "to sell grain", and Joseph is called hammashbir, "the one who sells grain" (42:6).

Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

grain, corn (as foodstuff)

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 Genesis 43:2

Range of meaning

The noun shever means grain, especially grain as something traded, rationed or bought in a famine. The matching verb shavar means "to buy grain". Its causative form (Hiphil) means "to sell grain", and Joseph is called hammashbir, "the one who sells grain" (42:6). Almost all of these uses come from the famine stories (Gen 41–44; Amos 8:5–6; Neh 10:31). There is a separate and far more common Hebrew verb shavar, "to break" (H7665), which is spelled the same.

Against the English

English has to use two unrelated words, "grain" and "buy", so the echo is lost. Hebrew says hashever (the grain) and then shivru (grain-buy), so the end of the verse repeats the start: the grain is finished, so go and grain-buy.

How it drifted

No real drift. The loss is the shared root and sound, which English cannot reproduce.

Used elsewhere in the period

Lexicons such as BDB and HALOT list the grain words separately from shavar "to break" and treat them as a distinct root. Some link them to the idea of "broken" (threshed or crushed) grain, but that is uncertain. The grain-buying verb appears in a commercial setting in Amos 8:5 ("that we may sell grain"). The Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) uses ordinary commercial words, sitos "grain" and agorazō "buy at market".

From the study of Genesis 47:14

Range of meaning

The noun šeber means grain, especially grain that is sold or handed out as rations (42:1–2, 19, 26; Amos 8:5). The related verb šābar means "to buy grain" (most uses) and in one form "to sell grain" (41:56; 42:6). These words sound the same as the common šābar, "to break", but whether the two are actually related is uncertain.

Against the English

KJV's "corn" meant any grain in 1611. Modern (especially American) readers picture maize, a New World crop unknown to the ancient Near East. "Grain" (BSB, WEB) is correct. Most English versions cannot show that the Hebrew pairs the noun and verb from the same root.

How it drifted

In British English "corn" meant the main cereal crop. In American English it narrowed to maize after the colonial period.

Used elsewhere in the period

The verb and noun cluster in Gen 41–44, where they appear more than twenty times, and recur in Amos 8:5–6 about grain merchants. The grain itself would have been Egyptian emmer wheat and barley.

Similar words

Where it appears

Genesis · 7

  1. Genesis 42:1 שֶׁ֖בֶר [was] grain

    When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you staring at one another?”

  2. Genesis 42:2 שֶׁ֖בֶר [is] grain

    “Look,” he added, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.”

  3. Genesis 42:19 שֶׁ֖בֶר [the] grain of

    If you are honest, leave one of your brothers in custody while the rest of you go and take back grain to relieve the hunger of your households.

  4. Genesis 42:26 שִׁבְרָ֖ם grain their

    and they loaded the grain on their donkeys and departed.

  5. Genesis 43:2 הַשֶּׁ֔בֶר the grain

    So when Jacob’s sons had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, “Go back and buy us a little more food.”

    Here: "The grain", a specific word for grain as bought and sold, the stock Joseph handed out in Egypt. In this story it is the key word for famine grain, and it echoes the verb "buy grain" later in the verse.

  6. Genesis 44:2 שִׁבְר֑וֹ grain his

    Put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” So the steward did as Joseph had instructed.

  7. Genesis 47:14 בַּשֶּׁ֖בֶר for the grain

    Joseph collected all the money to be found in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain they were buying, and he brought it into Pharaoh’s palace.

    Here: Grain as something bought and handed out as rations. The preposition here marks price or exchange: "in return for the grain".

Nehemiah · 1

  1. Nehemiah 10:31 שֶׁ֜בֶר grain

    When the people of the land bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on a Sabbath or holy day. Every seventh year we will let the fields lie fallow and will cancel every debt.

    Here: Grain as a commodity bought and sold. It is the word used when Jacob's sons go to buy food in Egypt (Genesis 42), and the word Amos uses for merchants impatient for the Sabbath to end (Amos 8:5).

Amos · 1

  1. Amos 8:5 שֶּׁ֔בֶר grain

    asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales.

    Here: Grain as a trade good, the word used for the grain bought in Egypt during the famine in the Joseph story (Genesis 42). Verb and noun repeat each other: 'let us grain-sell grain.' The sh-b sound also echoes 'Sabbath' a moment later.

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