Hebrew word · H7997

שָׁלַל

veshalu

to loot

To plunder or take booty, above all after a military victory: carrying off goods, cattle, precious metals and sometimes people. The related noun shalal means 'spoil, booty' (e.g. Deut 20:14; Isa 10:6).

Appears 16 times in 12 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to spoil, plunder, take spoil

1a) (Qal) to spoil, plunder

1b) (Hithpolel) to be spoiled, be plundered

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 Habakkuk 2:8

Range of meaning

To plunder or take booty, above all after a military victory: carrying off goods, cattle, precious metals and sometimes people. The related noun shalal means 'spoil, booty' (e.g. Deut 20:14; Isa 10:6). In Ruth 2:16 the same root is used in a weaker sense, 'to pull out' grain for a gleaner, but in prophetic and military settings it means organised looting.

Against the English

KJV 'spoiled… spoil thee' keeps the older English sense of 'spoil' as 'strip, despoil' (as in 'the spoils of war'). Modern English 'spoil' mostly means 'to ruin', as with food, or 'to pamper', as with a child. BSB, WEB, ESV and NASB use 'plunder'.

How it drifted

English 'spoil' (from Latin spoliare, 'to strip') has drifted from 'despoil' to 'ruin' or 'indulge'. Only the phrase 'spoils of war' keeps the old sense.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 10:6 uses the same pairing for Assyria, sent 'to take spoil and seize plunder' (lishlol shalal). Isaiah 33:1 has the same boomerang idea: 'Woe to you, destroyer… when you finish destroying, you will be destroyed.' Ezekiel 39:10 reverses it as here: Israel 'will plunder those who plundered them' (veshalelu et sholleleihem). Assyrian royal inscriptions boast in the same terms of carrying off the booty (Akkadian šallatu, from the cognate root) of conquered lands.

From the study of Psalm 76:5

Range of meaning

The root š-l-l means to plunder, take spoil, strip. The noun shālāl is "spoil, booty", the goods taken from a defeated enemy. An intensive form, shôlāl, describes people led away "stripped" (Job 12:17, 19; Mic 1:8, where it means going barefoot and stripped, like a captive). The form here is reflexive-passive: "they have been despoiled", or "they have let themselves be stripped".

Against the English

KJV "are spoiled" (the old sense of despoiled), YLT "Spoiled themselves have", BSB/WEB/NIV "lie plundered". The ESV's "were stripped of their spoil" reads it as the enemy losing the booty they had already taken. That is possible, but it is more specific than the verb requires.

How it drifted

The English "spoiled" once meant "stripped, plundered" (from Latin spolia, arms taken from a beaten foe). Today it means pampered, or food gone bad, so the KJV line now suggests something the Hebrew never said.

Used elsewhere in the period

The prefixed aleph ('esh- in place of the usual Hebrew hish-) is an Aramaic-type form. Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (§54a) notes it as a rare Aramaizing reflexive. The Septuagint did not take it as "plunder" and rendered etarachthēsan, "they were troubled". The root is common in battle narratives (e.g. 2 Kgs 7:16, Israel plundering the abandoned Aramean camp).

From the study of Zechariah 2:8

Range of meaning

To plunder or strip, taking the spoils of war. The related noun shalal means 'loot, spoil'.

Against the English

KJV 'spoiled' (archaic for 'plundered'). BSB and WEB 'plundered'. YLT 'are spoiling' keeps the participle's sense of something ongoing.

How it drifted

KJV's 'spoiled' now sounds like 'ruined' or 'pampered'. In 1611 it meant 'stripped of goods as war booty'.

Used elsewhere in the period

A standard word in war narratives (Deut 20:14; Isa 10:2, 6; Ezek 29:19, where Babylon takes Egypt's spoil).

Similar words

Where it appears

Ruth · 2

  1. Ruth 2:16 שֹׁל־ תָּשֹׁ֥לּוּ indeed <pull out>, you will pull out

    Rather, pull out for her some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to gather. Do not rebuke her.”

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 76:5 אֶשְׁתּוֹלְל֨וּ׀ they were plundered

    The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.

    Here: "They have been stripped / have become plunder." The picture is a battlefield where fallen soldiers' armour and weapons are taken off their bodies. It is an odd, Aramaic-looking verb form, and putting it first gives it weight: the would-be looters have become the loot.

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 10:6 לִשְׁלֹ֤ל to plunder

    I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

    Here: 'To strip off spoil.' The verb is paired with its own noun (next word) for a heavy, hammering effect.

  2. Isaiah 59:15 מִשְׁתּוֹלֵ֑ל [was] plundered

    Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 50:10 שֹׁלְלֶ֥יהָ [those who] plunder it

    Chaldea will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the LORD.

    Here: A participle (an '-ing' verb used as a noun) from the same root as the noun before it: 'her plunderers.' The repetition (šālāl … šōləlêhā) is deliberate wordplay, 'plunder … her plunderers', which drives home that Chaldea is now the victim of the very thing it did.

Ezekiel · 7

  1. Ezekiel 26:12 וְשָׁלְל֣וּ and they will plunder

    They will plunder your wealth and pillage your merchandise. They will demolish your walls, tear down your beautiful homes, and throw your stones and timber and soil into the water.

  2. Ezekiel 29:19 וְשָׁלַ֤ל and he will plunder

    Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will carry off its wealth, seize its spoil, and remove its plunder. This will be the wages for his army.

  3. Ezekiel 38:12 לִשְׁלֹ֥ל to plunder

    in order to seize the spoil and carry off the plunder, to turn a hand against the desolate places now inhabited and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and possessions and who live at the center of the land.’

  4. Ezekiel 38:13 הֲלִשְׁלֹ֤ל לִשְׁלֹ֖ל ¿ to plunder, to plunder

    Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will ask, ‘Have you come to capture the plunder? Have you assembled your hordes to carry away loot, to make off with silver and gold, to take cattle and goods, to seize great spoil?’

  5. Ezekiel 39:10 וְשָׁלְל֣וּ שֹׁלְלֵיהֶ֗ם and they will plunder, [those who] plundered them

    They will not gather wood from the countryside or cut it from the forests, for they will use the weapons for fuel. They will loot those who looted them and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord GOD.

Habakkuk · 2

  1. Habakkuk 2:8 שַׁלּ֙וֹתָ֙ יְשָׁלּ֖וּךָ you have plundered, they will plunder you

    Because you have plundered many nations, the remnant of the people will plunder you—because of your bloodshed against man and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.

    Here: 'You have plundered.' A word from war: stripping a conquered people of goods, livestock and captives. The completed form looks back on the empire's career as a finished record.

Zechariah · 1

  1. Zechariah 2:8 הַשֹּׁלְלִ֣ים who plundered

    For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “After His Glory has sent Me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye—

    Here: 'The ones plundering': a participle, which describes them by what they do. It sets up v. 9, where the plunderers become shalal ('plunder') for their own slaves.

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