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שָׁבָה shâbâh — to transport into captivity

pronounced shaw-baw' · Strong's H7617 · 47 occurrences in the Hebrew Bible · 2 stems: Qal (Pa'al), Niph'al

Translated in the KJV as (bring away, carry, carry away, lead, lead away, take) captive, drive away.

a primitive root; to transport into captivity.

shâbâh in each stem

Qal (Pa'al) 39×

Simple · active — the plain action; the subject does it

Wayyiqtol 12Participle (active) 10Perfect (qatal) 8Sequential perfect (weqatal) 4Participle (passive) 2Imperfect (yiqtol) 1Imperative 1Infinitive construct 1

כִּשְׁבֻי֖וֹת Gen 31:26 Participle (passive), feminine plural

And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword? (KJV)

שָׁב֖וּ Gen 34:29 Perfect (qatal), 3rd person common plural

And all their wealth, and all their little ones, and their wives took they captive, and spoiled even all that was in the house. (KJV)

וַיִּ֥שְׁבְּ Num 21:1 Wayyiqtol, 3rd person masculine singular

And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. (KJV)

Niph'al

Simple · passive — the plain action; the subject has it done to them

Perfect (qatal) 8

נִשְׁבָּ֖ה Gen 14:14 Perfect (qatal), 3rd person masculine singular

And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. (KJV)

נִשְׁבָּ֖ה Exod 22:9 Perfect (qatal), 3rd person masculine singular

For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbour. (KJV)

נִשְׁבּֽוּ 1Sam 30:3 Perfect (qatal), 3rd person common plural

So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. (KJV)

What the stems mean

A Hebrew verb is its root letters set into a pattern. The pattern — the binyan — is the grammar's way of saying three things at once: whether the action is simple, intensive or causative, and whether its subject is active, passive or reflexive. That is why one Hebrew word can need six English ones. All seven binyanim, explained ›

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In the app, tap any Hebrew verb while reading: its root, stem and form are named, the letters of the word itself are coloured to show which is which, and the stem's meaning is put in plain English. shâbâh in the lexicon ›

Morphology from OpenScriptures MorphHB (CC BY 4.0); definitions from Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (public domain); text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex.

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