Hebrew word · H7908

שְׁכוֹל

shekhol

bereavement

Bereavement of children: losing one's offspring, being left childless by their death. The verb shakhal means "to be bereaved" (Gen 27:45; 43:14, Jacob's "if I am bereaved, I am bereaved").

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

bereavement, loss of children

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 Isaiah 47:8

Range of meaning

Bereavement of children: losing one's offspring, being left childless by their death. The verb shakhal means "to be bereaved" (Gen 27:45; 43:14, Jacob's "if I am bereaved, I am bereaved").

Against the English

BSB, WEB and KJV: "loss of children"; YLT: "bereavement" (accurate but less specific); the supplied gloss: "childlessness." "Childlessness" can suggest never having had children (infertility). Shekhol is losing children you had.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 49:20–21: Zion, once "bereaved and barren," is amazed at how many children she now has. The words are the same root (shakhal) and the image is reversed. The Vulgate here renders it sterilitatem ("barrenness"), which moves toward the infertility reading.

From the study of Isaiah 47:9

Range of meaning

Bereavement, specifically the loss of children: the state of a parent left childless. From the verb šāḵōl, 'to be bereaved of children' (Gen 27:45; 43:14). It is used of a mother bear robbed of her cubs (2 Sam 17:8) and of land that 'bereaves' its people (Ezek 36:13–14). The noun occurs only three times (Ps 35:12; Isa 47:8, 9).

Against the English

BSB, KJV and WEB say 'loss of children'; YLT has 'childlessness'. These are accurate. 'Childlessness' can sound like never having had children, but the word means losing children you had.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 49:20–21 uses the same root for Zion: 'the children of your bereavement (šikkulāyiḵ)… I was bereaved (šəḵûlāh) and barren.' There Zion gets her children back. Laments for ruined cities across the ancient Near East picture the city as a mother whose children have been killed or carried off.

From the study of Psalm 35:12

Range of meaning

Bereavement, especially the loss of children. It is related to the verb shakal, 'to be bereaved of children, to be childless', which is also used of animals losing their young and of vines or fields 'miscarrying' their fruit. The noun is rare: Isaiah 47:8–9 ('loss of children and widowhood') and here.

Against the English

BSB, NASB and WEB 'bereavement/bereaving' keep the idea. ESV 'bereft' keeps the sense of loss but blurs the particular grief of losing family. NIV 'like one bereaved' makes the comparison explicit. KJV 'spoiling' (in 1611, plundering or stripping) drops the family-loss image entirely.

How it drifted

In the KJV line the drift comes from 'spoiling', which shifted from 'robbing' to 'rotting' or 'pampering'.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 47:8–9, where Babylon will suffer 'loss of children and widowhood' in one day. The verb: Genesis 27:45 (Rebekah: 'why should I be bereaved of you both?'), Genesis 43:14 (Jacob: 'if I am bereaved, I am bereaved'), Hosea 13:8 (a bear 'robbed of her cubs'). The Greek Septuagint renders it ateknia, 'childlessness'.

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 35:12 שְׁכ֣וֹל bereavement

    They repay me evil for good, to the bereavement of my soul.

    Here: The specific grief of losing one's children, or of being left without family. It is used here as a picture: their betrayal leaves him desolate and stripped, like a parent whose children are gone.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 47:8 שְׁכֽוֹל׃ childlessness

    So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’

    Here: The loss of one's children: being left childless by death. For a city it means losing its population, its "children."

  2. Isaiah 47:9 שְׁכ֣וֹל childlessness

    These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.

    Here: The state of a parent whose children have died. It repeats the word from v. 8 ('I will never know šəḵôl'). For a city, the 'children' are her people.

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