Hebrew word · H7918

שָׁכַךְ

vaiyashoku

to subside

To subside, abate, sink down, grow quiet. Used of floodwaters (Gen 8:1) and of anger (Esth 2:1; 7:10). In the causative form, 'to make cease' (Num 17:5 [Heb 17:20], murmurings).

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to subside, abate, decrease

1a) (Qal) to abate

1b) (Hiphil) to allay

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 Esther 7:10

Range of meaning

To subside, abate, sink down, grow quiet. Used of floodwaters (Gen 8:1) and of anger (Esth 2:1; 7:10). In the causative form, 'to make cease' (Num 17:5 [Heb 17:20], murmurings).

Against the English

'Subsided' (BSB, NIV, NASB), 'abated' (ESV), 'pacified' (KJV, WEB), 'hath lain down' (YLT). 'Pacified' hints that someone soothed him or that justice satisfied him. The Hebrew simply says the anger went down by itself, like water.

How it drifted

'Pacified' in KJV English meant 'appeased, quieted'. To a modern ear it can sound like a moral resolution, as if justice were now complete.

Used elsewhere in the period

Gen 8:1, 'the waters subsided' (vayyashokku). Esther 2:1 uses exactly 'when the ḥemah of the king subsided', which links the fall of Vashti and the fall of Haman as matching turning points.

From the study of Genesis 8:1

Range of meaning

To sink down, subside, abate, grow calm. Used of water here and of anger elsewhere. Rare: five occurrences.

Against the English

KJV 'asswaged' (assuaged) keeps the sense of something being calmed or soothed. 'Subsided' and 'receded' (NIV, NLT) describe only the physical drop in water level.

Used elsewhere in the period

Esther 2:1 and 7:10: the king's wrath 'abated'. Numbers 17:20 (17:5 in English Bibles), in the causative form: God will 'make cease' Israel's grumbling. Jeremiah 5:26 is textually difficult.

From the study of Jeremiah 5:26

Range of meaning

Uncertain. If it comes from shakhakh ('to subside, sink down, abate'; Genesis 8:1 of waters, Esther 7:10 of anger), it would mean 'like the stooping/crouching of'. Another proposal links it to a root meaning 'to cover/screen', giving 'a hide' or 'covering'. Some scholars think the text here is damaged.

Against the English

BSB, WEB, ESV and NASB give the overall sense 'lying in wait' or 'lurk'. KJV has 'as he that setteth snares'. YLT tries 'the covering of snares'. All of these are educated guesses.

Used elsewhere in the period

This exact form appears nowhere else. The Septuagint has no equivalent for this clause.

Similar words

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 8:1 וַיָּשֹׁ֖כּוּ and they subsided

    But God remembered Noah and all the animals and livestock that were with him in the ark. And God sent a wind over the earth, and the waters began to subside.

    Here: The waters calm and sink. The same verb is used of a king's anger cooling (Esther 2:1; 7:10). The verb starts a process that runs on for months (8:3–14), hence 'began to subside'.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 17:5 וַהֲשִׁכֹּתִ֣י and I will put an end to

    The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid Myself of the constant grumbling of the Israelites against you.”

    Here: To make something die down. The word is used of floodwaters going down (Gen 8:1) and of a king's anger cooling (Esth 2:1; 7:10). God will make the rising tide of complaint settle.

Esther · 2

  1. Esther 2:1 כְּשֹׁ֕ךְ when subsided

    Some time later, when the anger of King Xerxes had subsided, he remembered Vashti and what she had done, and what had been decreed against her.

  2. Esther 7:10 שָׁכָֽכָה׃ פ it subsided

    So they hanged Haman on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the fury of the king subsided.

    Here: Used of floodwaters going down (Gen 8:1). The king's anger is pictured as a surge that sinks back. The same phrase appears in Esther 2:1, when his anger at Vashti subsided. The verb describes a mood that has cooled. It is not a judicial verdict or a sense of justice satisfied.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 5:26 כְּשַׁ֣ךְ as bend

    For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.

    Here: 'Like the crouching (of)…' Nobody is sure what this word means. The supplied lemma links it to a verb for 'sinking down / abating', which gives the picture of a bird-catcher stooping low and still in his hide. Others connect it to a root meaning 'to cover', hence YLT's 'covering of snares'.

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