Hebrew word · H8129
שֵׁן
hashen
Shen
The common noun shen means “tooth”. It is also used of jagged rock formations: in 1 Samuel 14:4 there is a “tooth of rock” on either side of the pass. As a place name, “the Shen” probably means a crag or rocky spur.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
§ Shen = "crag"
a place in Palestine
evidently somewhere in the neighbourhood of Mizpah
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 1 Samuel 7:12
- Range of meaning
The common noun shen means “tooth”. It is also used of jagged rock formations: in 1 Samuel 14:4 there is a “tooth of rock” on either side of the pass. As a place name, “the Shen” probably means a crag or rocky spur.
- Against the English
English versions transliterate it as “Shen” (KJV, BSB, WEB, NIV, ESV) or follow the Greek and read “Jeshanah” (RSV, NRSV).
- Used elsewhere in the period
Not otherwise known as a place name. The LXX reads “the old [one]”, which reflects Hebrew ha-yeshanah, “the old”, i.e. the town Jeshanah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
Where it appears
1 Samuel · 1
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1 Samuel 7:12 הַשֵּׁ֔ן <the> Shen
Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
Here: Literally “the Tooth”, probably a jagged rocky crag used as a landmark (compare the rock “teeth” of 1 Samuel 14:4). The Greek tradition reads a town name, Jeshanah, here instead (see textual notes).
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.