Hebrew word · H8357

שֵׁת

shet

buttock

Buttocks or seat. It occurs only here and in 2 Sam 10:4 (plural šətôtêhem), and may be related to a word for 'foundation' (Ps 11:3).

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

seat (of body), buttocks

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 Isaiah 20:4

Range of meaning

Buttocks or seat. It occurs only here and in 2 Sam 10:4 (plural šətôtêhem), and may be related to a word for 'foundation' (Ps 11:3).

Against the English

KJV/WEB 'buttocks uncovered' and BSB 'bared buttocks' are accurate. YLT's 'seat' is a gentler older word.

Used elsewhere in the period

In 2 Sam 10:4 Hanun of Ammon cut David's envoys' robes 'in the middle, to their buttocks' and shaved half their beards. Israel treated this as an outrage serious enough for war, which shows how charged the image was.

Where it appears

2 Samuel · 1

  1. 2 Samuel 10:4 שְׁתֽוֹתֵיהֶ֑ם buttocks their

    So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments at the hips, and sent them away.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 20:4 שֵׁ֖ת buttock

    so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.

    Here: 'Buttock.' A rare, blunt word. Its only other use is 2 Sam 10:4, where cutting envoys' robes 'to the buttocks' was an insult serious enough to start a war.

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