Hebrew word · H7956

שֵׁלָה

shelah

Shelah

A personal name of uncertain meaning. It is sometimes linked with 'request, petition' (compare shaʾal, 'to ask') or with roots meaning 'quiet, at ease'. Neither is certain.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A man of the tribe of Judah living at the time of Egypt and Wilderness, first mentioned at Gen.38.5;

son of: Judah (H3063) and Bath-shua (H1323I);

brother of: Er (H6147) and Onan (H0209);

half-brother of: Perez (H6557) and Zerah (H2226I);

father of: Er (H6147H), Laadah (H3935), Jokim (H3137), Joash (H3101K) and Saraph (H8315); also called Shelanite at Num.26.20;

Also named: she.la.ni (שֵׁלָנִי "Shelanite" H8024)

§ Shelah = "a petition"

the youngest son of Judah

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 Numbers 26:20

Range of meaning

A personal name of uncertain meaning. It is sometimes linked with 'request, petition' (compare shaʾal, 'to ask') or with roots meaning 'quiet, at ease'. Neither is certain.

Against the English

All versions transliterate it. The gentilic 'Shelanite' (shelani) presupposes a form with -n-, which is reflected in some ancient witnesses.

Used elsewhere in the period

Genesis 38:5, 11, 14, 26: Judah withheld Shelah from Tamar, who should have been given him in levirate marriage. (Levirate marriage was the duty of a dead man's brother to marry the widow and raise an heir in the dead man's name.) Shelah's descendants appear in 1 Chronicles 4:21–23 as linen-workers and royal potters.

Where it appears

Genesis · 5

  1. Genesis 38:5 שֵׁלָ֑ה Shelah

    Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him.

  2. Genesis 38:11 שֵׁלָ֣ה Shelah

    Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

  3. Genesis 38:14 שֵׁלָ֔ה Shelah

    she removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife.

  4. Genesis 38:26 לְשֵׁלָ֣ה to Shelah

    Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again.

  5. Genesis 46:12 וְשֵׁלָ֖ה and Shelah

    The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.

    Here: The third son. Judah held him back from Tamar (Gen 38:11, 14, 26). He survives to head the Shelanite clan (Num 26:20; 1 Chr 4:21–23).

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 26:20 לְשֵׁלָ֗ה of Shelah

    These were the descendants of Judah by their clans: The Shelanite clan from Shelah, the Perezite clan from Perez, and the Zerahite clan from Zerah.

    Here: The preposition le- marks the ancestor the clan belongs to. Shelah was Judah's third son, the one who survived after Er and Onan died (v. 19; Gen 38).

1 Chronicles · 2

  1. 1 Chronicles 2:3 וְשֵׁלָ֔ה and Shelah

    The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, and Shelah. These three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanite. Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death.

  2. 1 Chronicles 4:21 שֵׁלָ֣ה Shelah

    The sons of Shelah son of Judah: Er the father of Lecah, Laadah the father of Mareshah and the clans of the linen workers at Beth-ashbea,

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