Hebrew word · H8154

שָׁסָה

shosehu

to plunder

shasah/shasas: to plunder, despoil, raid. The participle shosim means 'plunderers, raiders.' 'Give into the hand of' is the standard holy-war phrase for a deity handing a people over to an enemy.

Appears 11 times in 11 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to spoil, plunder, take spoil

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to plunder

1a2) plunderers (participle)

1b) (Poel) to plunder

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 2 Kings 17:20

Range of meaning

shasah/shasas: to plunder, despoil, raid. The participle shosim means 'plunderers, raiders.' 'Give into the hand of' is the standard holy-war phrase for a deity handing a people over to an enemy.

Against the English

KJV 'spoilers' is archaic: 'spoil' then meant 'plunder', not 'ruin' or 'pamper.' 'Plunderers' (BSB, ESV, NIV) and 'raiders' (WEB) are clearer.

How it drifted

KJV 'spoilers' can mislead today, because 'spoil' now usually means to ruin or over-indulge. In 1611 it meant to strip of goods.

Used elsewhere in the period

Judg 2:14 is the same wording: 'he gave them into the hand of plunderers (shosim), and they plundered them.' See also 1 Sam 14:48 and 2 Kgs 13:3 (God gives Israel into the hand of Hazael of Aram). Assyrian royal inscriptions describe their own campaigns as carried out by command of their gods, the same picture from the other side.

From the study of Hosea 13:15

Range of meaning

Šāsâ: 'plunder, loot', always about human despoilers (Judges 2:14; 1 Samuel 23:1 by-form; Isaiah 17:14; 42:22). Kəlî ḥemdâ: 'objects of desire', meaning valuables: precious metal vessels, ornaments, luxury goods.

Against the English

KJV 'all pleasant vessels' sounds mild today ('pleasant' = agreeable). The Hebrew means coveted, costly treasure. BSB 'every precious article' and ESV's 'every precious thing' are closer. WEB 'the storehouse of treasure' compresses the phrase and loses 'every'.

How it drifted

In the King James era 'pleasant' meant 'delightful, desirable'. Now it means only 'nice', which is much weaker than ḥemdâ.

Used elsewhere in the period

The same phrase appears in Nahum 2:9 (Heb 2:10), where Nineveh is looted: 'glory from every vessel of desire'. In 2 Chronicles 36:10 'vessels of desire of the house of YHWH' are the temple treasures carried to Babylon. Hosea 9:6 already threatened Ephraim's 'precious things (maḥmad) of silver'. Assyrian annals record tribute and spoil from Israel: Menahem paid a thousand talents to Tiglath-pileser III (2 Kings 15:19–20), and Sargon II claims spoil and deportees from Samaria.

From the study of Judges 2:14

Range of meaning

Two closely related roots (shasah, shasas) meaning "to plunder, despoil, strip of goods." The participle shosim means "plunderers, raiders," people who take property, crops and livestock, as opposed to an army fighting set battles.

Against the English

KJV's "spoilers that spoiled them" keeps the double word play but now sounds odd. BSB "those who plundered them," WEB/NIV "raiders who plundered them," and ESV "plunderers, who plundered them" are all accurate. NLT's "stole their possessions" makes the meaning plain but loses the violence of a raid.

How it drifted

In current English "spoil" means to ruin something, or to reveal a plot twist. In 1611, "spoil" meant to strip by force, which is the Hebrew sense.

Used elsewhere in the period

1 Sam 14:48 (Saul rescues Israel "from the hand of its plunderers," miyyad shosehu); 2 Kgs 17:20; Isa 42:22, 24 ("Who gave Jacob up for spoil… was it not Yahweh?"); Jer 50:11; Ps 89:42 [Eng 89:41]. In Judges the clearest example is Midian destroying crops and livestock (6:3–6).

Where it appears

Judges · 2

  1. Judges 2:14 שֹׁסִ֔ים plunderers

    Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

    Here: "Plunderers": people who raid and strip a place of its goods, harvests and livestock. The word fits the hit-and-run raids that fill the book (for example the Midianites in ch. 6).

  2. Judges 2:16 שֹׁסֵיהֶֽם׃ plunderers their

    Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them.

1 Samuel · 2

  1. 1 Samuel 14:48 שֹׁסֵֽהוּ׃ ס [those who] plundered it

    He fought valiantly and defeated the Amalekites, delivering Israel from the hands of its plunderers.

  2. 1 Samuel 23:1 שֹׁסִ֥ים [are] plundering

    Now it was reported to David, “Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and looting the threshing floors.”

2 Kings · 1

  1. 2 Kings 17:20 שֹׁסִ֑ים plunderers

    So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.

    Here: 'Plunderers,' a participle: people who make a practice of plundering. It is the exact word of Judges 2:14, so it calls up the old cycle of raiders. For the northern kingdom that meant Aramean raids and Assyrian campaigns.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 44:10 שָׁ֣סוּ they have plundered

    You have made us retreat from the foe, and those who hate us have plundered us.

Isaiah · 3

  1. Isaiah 10:13 שׁוֹשֵׂ֔תִי I have plundered

    For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers.

    Here: 'I have plundered'. An intensive form spelled unusually (with ś instead of s). It means thorough looting, the stripping of a conquered land that Assyrian annals list item by item.

  2. Isaiah 17:14 שׁוֹסֵ֔ינוּ [those who] plunder us

    In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.

  3. Isaiah 42:22 וְשָׁסוּי֒ and plundered

    But this is a people plundered and looted, all trapped in caves or imprisoned in dungeons. They have become plunder with no one to rescue them, and loot with no one to say, “Send them back!”

    Here: “And looted”: a near-synonym paired with the previous word. Saying the same thing twice stresses how complete the stripping was.

Jeremiah · 1

  1. Jeremiah 50:11 שֹׁסֵ֖י O plunderers of

    “Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,

    Here: 'Plunderers of…' This names the addressees by what they did. They stripped Judah. Verse 10 has just said that Chaldea itself will become plunder.

Hosea · 1

  1. Hosea 13:15 יִשְׁסֶ֔ה it will plunder

    Although he flourishes among his brothers, an east wind will come—a wind from the LORD rising up from the desert. His fountain will fail, and his spring will run dry. The wind will plunder his treasury of every precious article.

    Here: 'He/it will plunder.' This is the vocabulary of looting soldiers (Judges 2:14; Isaiah 42:22), not of weather. The metaphor ends here and becomes war.

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