Hebrew word · H7846

שֵׂט

setim

rebellion

A rare noun from the root sut/satah, 'to turn aside, swerve, go astray'. The same root describes a wife who 'goes astray' in Num 5:12, 19-20 and turning aside from a path in Prov 4:15 and 7:25.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 23, 2026

What it means

swerver, revolter, rebel, deeds that swerve

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 101:3

Range of meaning: A rare noun from the root sut/satah, 'to turn aside, swerve, go astray'. The same root describes a wife who 'goes astray' in Num 5:12, 19-20 and turning aside from a path in Prov 4:15 and 7:25. The plural can mean 'deviations, swervings' as abstract acts or 'deviators, those who turn aside' as persons. The only other likely occurrence is Hos 5:2, where the text is difficult, and there it seems to refer to rebels or revolters.
Against the English: KJV 'them that turn aside' is close to the root. BSB/ESV/NASB 'those who fall away' and WEB 'faithless men' read it as disloyalty. NLT 'all who deal crookedly' reads it as dishonesty.
How it drifted: 'Fall away' carries a specifically Christian sense (apostasy from faith, as in debates about Heb 6). The Hebrew picture is spatial and moral: veering off the straight road, crooked conduct, disloyalty. In a court that could include political defection.
Used elsewhere in the period: The Septuagint has parabaseis, 'transgressions' (literally 'steppings-aside'), keeping the spatial picture. The Vulgate (Gallican Psalter) has praevaricationes, 'deviations, betrayals of duty'.

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

Psalm 101:3 סֵטִ֥ים swerving deeds

I will set no worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me.

Here: This rare word comes from the root 'turn aside, swerve, go astray'. It can mean deviant acts or the people who commit them, those who veer off the straight path of loyalty and integrity.

Hosea · 1

Hosea 5:2 שֵׂטִ֖ים rebels

The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I will chastise them all.

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