Aramaic word · H7739

שְׁוָה

shevi

be like

A Biblical Aramaic word, from the parts of the Old Testament written in Aramaic. Why Aramaic?

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Aramaic of the Old Testament.

What it means

(Pael) to become like

Aramaic of sha.vah (שָׁוָה "be like" H7737A)

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

Where it appears

Daniel · 2

  1. Daniel 3:29 יִשְׁתַּוֵּ֑ה it will be made

    Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut into pieces and their houses reduced to rubble. For there is no other god who can deliver in this way.”

    Here: 'Shall be turned into' or 'made equal to' (a refuse heap).

  2. Daniel 5:21 שַׁוִּ֗יְו they made

    He was driven away from mankind, and his mind was like that of a beast. He lived with the wild donkeys and ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until he acknowledged that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of mankind, setting over it whom He wishes.

    Here: 'They made [it] equal.' This is an impersonal 'they', which in Aramaic often works like an English passive ('it was made like'). The reading tradition points to a singular passive. The point: something was done to him. He did not choose it.

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