Hebrew word · H7829

שַׁחֶ֫פֶת

hashachefet

consumption

A wasting disease, loss of flesh and strength. It is linked to the rare adjective/noun shachaf, perhaps 'thin' (the sea-bird in Lev 11:16 is sometimes explained as 'the lean one'). It occurs only here and in Deut 28:22.

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

What it means

1) consumption, wasting disease

1a) a wasting disease of the lungs

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 Leviticus 26:16

Range of meaning

A wasting disease, loss of flesh and strength. It is linked to the rare adjective/noun shachaf, perhaps 'thin' (the sea-bird in Lev 11:16 is sometimes explained as 'the lean one'). It occurs only here and in Deut 28:22.

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'consumption', BSB/ESV 'wasting disease'. The older English 'consumption' later came to mean tuberculosis specifically.

How it drifted

In the 18th–19th centuries, 'consumption' became the everyday name for pulmonary tuberculosis. A modern reader of the KJV therefore hears a specific diagnosis that the Hebrew does not give.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 28:22 lists it with fever, inflammation and blight. Ancient Near Eastern treaty curses also call down wasting and incurable illness on oath-breakers. Scholars have proposed tuberculosis, malaria-linked wasting or others, without consensus (Milgrom, Hartley).

Similar words

Where it appears

Leviticus · 1

  1. Leviticus 26:16 הַשַּׁחֶ֣פֶת <the> consumption

    then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

    Here: 'The wasting'. Some illness that makes the body thin and weak. It appears only here and in Deut 28:22, so we cannot identify the disease.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 28:22 בַּשַּׁחֶ֨פֶת with <the> consumption

    The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.

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