Hebrew word · H8666

תְּשׁוּבָה

litshuvat

turn

The noun teshuvah comes from shuv, 'turn, return'.

Appears 8 times in 8 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 01, 2026

What it means

1) a recurrence, an answer, return

1a) return

1a1) completion of a year, return of a year

1b) at the return (construct)

1c) answer, reply

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

Range of meaning: The noun teshuvah comes from shuv, 'turn, return'. In the Bible it means (1) a return or coming back (1 Samuel 7:17, 'his return was to Ramah'); (2) an answer, a 'returned' word (Job 21:34; 34:36); (3) in the fixed phrase 'the turning of the year', the point when the yearly cycle comes round, which is spring.
Against the English: KJV 'when the year was expired' sounds as though a full year passed after Jehoiachin's three-month reign. WEB 'at the return of the year' and YLT 'at the turn of the year' are literal but obscure. BSB, ESV and NIV say 'in the spring', which gives the sense.
How it drifted: Early modern English 'expired' put the stress on an ending rather than a new beginning. Separately, later Jewish usage made teshuvah the standard word for 'repentance', a sense the noun never has in the Hebrew Bible.
Used elsewhere in the period: The same phrase appears in 2 Samuel 11:1 and 1 Chronicles 20:1, 'at the turning of the year, the time when kings go out to battle', and in 1 Kings 20:22, 26. The Babylonian Chronicle (Grayson ABC 5) dates the capture of Jerusalem to 2 Adar of Nebuchadnezzar's 7th year (about 16 March 597 BC), just before the Babylonian new year in Nisan.

Range of meaning: Teshuvah in biblical Hebrew means a return, a coming back, and occasionally an answer. Together the phrase means the point at which the year comes back around.
Against the English: KJV's "after the year was expired" sounds like the end of a twelve-month term. WEB's "at the return of the year" and YLT's "revolution of the year" keep the picture. BSB, NIV, ESV and NASB interpret it as spring, which is likely correct but is an interpretation.
How it drifted: In later Jewish Hebrew, teshuvah became the standard word for repentance. That meaning does not apply here. The phrase is purely about the calendar, and any link to David's later repentance would be a coincidence of later usage.
Used elsewhere in the period: The same expression appears in 1 Kings 20:22 and 20:26, where a king of Aram comes back to fight "at the return of the year," as well as in 1 Chronicles 20:1 and 2 Chronicles 36:10, where Nebuchadnezzar acts at that time. A similar phrase in Exodus 34:22 (tequfat hashanah, a different word) refers to the autumn harvest, which is why the season is not completely certain.

1 Samuel · 1

1 Samuel 7:17 וּתְשֻׁבָת֤וֹ and return his

Then he would return to Ramah because his home was there, and there he judged Israel and built an altar to the LORD.

2 Samuel · 1

2 Samuel 11:1 לִתְשׁוּבַ֨ת to [the] return of

In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.

Here: "At the return of," from the common verb for turning back. The year is pictured as coming back around to a familiar point, not simply running out.

1 Kings · 2

1 Kings 20:22 לִתְשׁוּבַ֣ת to [the] return of

Afterward, the prophet approached the king of Israel and said, “Go and strengthen your position, and take note what you must do, for in the spring the king of Aram will come up against you.”
1 Kings 20:26 לִתְשׁוּבַ֣ת to [the] return of

In the spring, Ben-hadad mobilized the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.

1 Chronicles · 1

1 Chronicles 20:1 תְּשׁוּבַ֨ת [the] return of

In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. He came to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab attacked Rabbah and demolished it.

2 Chronicles · 1

2 Chronicles 36:10 וְלִתְשׁוּבַ֣ת and to [the] return of

In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

Here: A noun from the verb 'to turn, return', used in a fixed phrase with 'the year'. It names the point when the year comes round again, which here means spring.

Job · 2

Job 21:34 וּ֝תְשֽׁוּבֹתֵיכֶ֗ם and answers your

So how can you comfort me with empty words? For your answers remain full of falsehood.”
Job 34:36 תְּ֝שֻׁבֹ֗ת answers

If only Job were tried to the utmost for answering like a wicked man.

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