Hebrew word · H8205

שְׁפִי

shefi

bareness

From a root connected with being bare or scraped clean. It means open, treeless places, usually understood as bare hills or ridges. It occurs only a handful of times, mostly in Jeremiah and Isaiah, so the exact shape of the terrain is not fully certain.

Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) bareness, smooth or bare height, bare place, high places, barren height

1a) bareness

1b) bare place, bare height

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 Jeremiah 12:12

Range of meaning

From a root connected with being bare or scraped clean. It means open, treeless places, usually understood as bare hills or ridges. It occurs only a handful of times, mostly in Jeremiah and Isaiah, so the exact shape of the terrain is not fully certain.

Against the English

BSB 'barren heights' and WEB 'bare heights' are close. KJV and YLT 'high places' is misleading, because in English Bibles that phrase normally translates a different Hebrew word, bamah, a local worship site.

How it drifted

The KJV's 'high places' drew this word into a familiar religious phrase. A reader then assumes shrines are named here, when the word itself describes terrain.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah 3:2 (Israel told to look at the bare heights where she was unfaithful); 3:21 (weeping heard on them); 4:11 (a scorching wind from 'the bare heights in the wilderness,' the same pairing as here, announcing invasion); 7:29 (lament raised on them); 14:6 (wild donkeys panting on them in drought); Isaiah 41:18 and 49:9 (reversal: rivers and pasture on them). The Greek Septuagint (diekbolē, a way through) and the Latin Vulgate (viae, roads) both took it here as routes across the steppe.

From the study of Isaiah 41:18

Range of meaning

Bare, open heights: treeless, exposed hilltops, ridges or tracks across them. The word probably comes from a root meaning 'to be swept bare, smooth'. HALOT gives 'bare height' and notes a possible sense of 'track, trail' across open country. It appears almost only in poetry and prophecy: Num 23:3, Isa 41:18, 49:9, Jer 3:2, 3:21, 4:11, 7:29, 12:12, 14:6.

Against the English

KJV 'high places' is a fair literal rendering, but English readers often confuse it with the cultic 'high places' (bamot) condemned throughout Kings and the Prophets. BSB/NIV 'barren heights' and WEB/ESV 'bare heights' get the bareness and lack of water right.

How it drifted

Translators have used 'high places' both for bamot (local shrines) and for shephayim. Readers who know 'high places' as a word for idolatry may wrongly hear a reference to worship sites.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Jer 4:11 a 'scorching wind from the bare heights in the wilderness' brings judgment. In Jer 14:6 wild donkeys stand on the bare heights panting like jackals in a drought. In Isa 49:9 the returning exiles find pasture 'on all the bare heights', a direct sister promise to this verse. The LXX here simply has 'mountains'.

From the study of Isaiah 49:9

Range of meaning

Bare, smooth or treeless heights. The word means barren windswept ridges, probably from a root meaning “to be smooth/bare.”

Against the English

KJV and YLT “high places” can mislead, because English Bibles use “high places” mainly for bāmôt, the hilltop shrines condemned throughout Kings. This is a different word and refers to land, not shrines. BSB “barren hill” and WEB “treeless heights” are closer.

How it drifted

The KJV’s habit of rendering bāmôt as “high places” made the phrase a byword for idolatrous shrines. Using the same English for šepāyîm here invites a link the Hebrew does not make.

Used elsewhere in the period

In Jeremiah 14:6 the wild donkeys stand on the šepāyîm panting “because there is no grass.” In Jeremiah 4:11 a scorching wind blows from the bare heights. In Jeremiah 3:2, 21 the bare heights are the places of Israel’s faithless worship and of its weeping, so the word can carry associations of desolation. Isaiah 41:18 has “I will open rivers on the bare heights (šepāyîm).”

Where it appears

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 23:3 שֶֽׁפִי׃ a bare height

    “Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone,” Balaam said to Balak. “Perhaps the LORD will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you.” So Balaam went off to a barren height,

Isaiah · 2

  1. Isaiah 41:18 שְׁפָיִים֙ bare heights

    I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs.

    Here: Bare, wind-swept hilltops or ridges with no trees or water. They are exposed to the scorching wind (Jer 4:11) and are where thirsty wild donkeys stand panting (Jer 14:6). They are the driest spots in the landscape.

  2. Isaiah 49:9 שְׁפָיִ֖ים bare heights

    to say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed along the pathways, and find pasture on every barren hill.

    Here: “Bare heights”: windswept, treeless ridges where in drought wild donkeys pant for lack of grass (Jeremiah 14:6). These are the least likely places to find pasture, and here they become pasture.

Jeremiah · 6

  1. Jeremiah 3:2 שְׁפָיִ֜ם bare heights

    “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.

    Here: Bare, windswept hilltops with no trees, visible from far off. In Jeremiah these are the places where Judah worships other gods and wails in mourning (3:21; 7:29). The word does not mean 'shrine', but everyone knew what happened up there.

  2. Jeremiah 3:21 שְׁפָיִ֣ים bare heights

    A voice is heard on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD their God.

    Here: Bare, treeless hilltops and ridges. Jeremiah used the same word in 3:2 for the places where Israel 'played the prostitute' with other gods, so the place of their unfaithfulness is now the place of their weeping.

  3. Jeremiah 4:11 שְׁפָיִים֙ bare heights

    At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A searing wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward the daughter of My people, but not to winnow or to sift;

    Here: 'Of the bare heights.' Treeless, wind-swept ridges. In Jeremiah 3:2 and 3:21 these are the very places where Israel worshipped other gods and later wept. Now the judgment wind blows from them.

  4. Jeremiah 7:29 שְׁפָיִ֖ם bare heights

    Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’

  5. Jeremiah 12:12 שְׁפָיִ֣ם [the] bare heights

    Over all the barren heights in the wilderness the destroyers have come, for the sword of the LORD devours from one end of the earth to the other. No flesh has peace.

    Here: Treeless, exposed ridges. In Jeremiah these are loaded places: the scene of Israel's unfaithfulness (3:2), of weeping (3:21), and of lament (7:29).

  6. Jeremiah 14:6 שְׁפָיִ֔ם [the] bare heights

    Wild donkeys stand on barren heights; they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail for lack of pasture.”

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