Hebrew word · H7698

שֶׁ֫גֶר

shegar

offspring

The offspring or 'drop' of cattle. In the Bible it occurs only in Ex 13:12 and Deut 7:13; 28:4, 18, 51.

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 25, 2026

What it means

offspring, young or offspring of beasts

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: The offspring or 'drop' of cattle. In the Bible it occurs only in Ex 13:12 and Deut 7:13; 28:4, 18, 51. Outside the Bible, šgr is a deity: at Ugarit (Syria, about 1200 BC) šgr appears as a god paired with ʾitm, and in the Deir ʿAlla plaster inscription from Jordan (about 800 BC) šgr and ʿštr appear together as divine powers of fertility.
Against the English: English versions rightly give 'increase', 'young' or 'calves'. No English rendering can show that the word was once a divine name.
Used elsewhere in the period: Ugaritic god-lists and offering texts; Deir ʿAlla Combination I (šgr wʿštr). Biblical usage is always the ordinary noun.

Range of meaning: The young that animals drop or give birth to. It occurs only five times, always in the phrase 'the shegar of your cattle' (Deut 7:13; 28:4, 18, 51) or 'the shegar of an animal' (Exod 13:12).
Against the English: KJV 'increase,' BSB 'young,' and similar renderings give the ordinary sense correctly. No English version can show that the word is also a divine name.
Used elsewhere in the period: Shagar appears as a deity at Ugarit (paired as 'Shagar-and-Itum') and in the Deir 'Alla plaster inscription (8th c. BC, Jordan Valley), which mentions 'šgr and 'štr,' Shagar and Ashtar, side by side, the same pairing as in this verse. Weinfeld (Anchor Bible) and Tigay (JPS) both draw attention to this.

Range of meaning: The young or offspring of cattle, a herd's 'increase'. It appears only here and in Deuteronomy, in the fixed pair 'the sheger of your cattle and the ashtarot of your flock' (Deut 7:13; 28:4, 18, 51).
Against the English: KJV 'firstling that cometh of a beast', YLT 'the increase of beasts', BSB 'livestock'. Most modern versions fold the word into 'firstborn of your animals' and lose a distinctive farming term.
Used elsewhere in the period: Outside the Bible, Shagar is the name of a god connected with the fertility of livestock. It is attested at Ugarit and in the Deir Alla inscription about Balaam (8th century BC), where Shagar is paired with Ashtar, just as Deuteronomy pairs sheger with ashtarot. Many scholars (HALOT s.v. שֶׁגֶר; studies of the Deir Alla texts) conclude that the names of Canaanite fertility gods had worn down into ordinary farm vocabulary for 'calving' and 'lambing'.

Exodus · 1

Exodus 13:12 שֶׁ֣גֶר [the] offspring of

you are to present to the LORD the firstborn male of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD.

Here: A rare farming word for the young 'dropped' by livestock. Elsewhere it is a stock term for the increase of a herd (Deut 7:13; 28:4).

Deuteronomy · 4

Deuteronomy 7:13 שְׁגַר־ [the] young of

He will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will bless the fruit of your womb and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and oil, the young of your herds and the lambs of your flocks—in the land that He swore to your fathers to give you.

Here: "The issue/young of." A rare word for the young that cattle drop. It matches the name of a fertility deity of livestock, Shagar, attested in the region.
Deuteronomy 28:4 שְׁגַ֥ר [the] young of

The fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

Here: A rare word for the young an animal drops at birth (compare Ex 13:12). It is also the name of a Canaanite fertility deity, Shagar, but here it means only the calves, now credited to Israel's God.
Deuteronomy 28:18 שְׁגַ֥ר [the] young of

The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.
Deuteronomy 28:51 שְׁגַ֥ר [the] young of

They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish.

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