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Hebrew verb · H7921

שָׁכֹל

shakolshaw-kole'

be bereaved; childless; barenness

23 uses in the Hebrew text, one for each word STEP Bible has tagged with this key

Concordance spelling: shâkôl

Word page · Part of the concordance, one page for every word of the Hebrew and Greek text. Strong's H7921is this word's number in James Strong's 1890 index of the King James Bible.

  • 12 of 39
    Old Testament books
  • 23
    spellings
  • 3
    meanings

The definition in full

Strong's key (1890) · H7921

properly, to miscarry, i.e. suffer abortion; by analogy, to bereave (literally or figuratively)

The King James renders it: bereave (of children), barren, cast calf (fruit, young), be (make) childless, deprive, destroy, [idiom] expect, lose children, miscarry, rob of children, spoil.

James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890), public domain. Strong indexed the King James text, and this site quotes his entry as that index.

Summary

shakol is rendered "be bereaved; childless; barenness". It stands 23 times in the Hebrew text, across twelve books.

  • Five of the uses stand in Genesis, more than in any other book.
  • The lexicon lists three meanings for it, beginning with "be bereaved".
  • Its first use in canonical order opens the ledger below.Genesis 27:45until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”
  • The Greek text spells it twenty-three different ways.

The first use

until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

Genesis 27:45אֶשְׁכַּ֛ל

The first use, in the order of the Old Testament's books.

Where the word stands

The word stands in twelve of the 39 Old Testament books.

The other 27 Old Testament books never use the word.

What the word means

The word carries three meanings: be bereaved, and childless, and barenness.

Each meaning, and the words it is translated by

The English STEP Bible gives each use, word by word, and how many times.
be bereavedStrong's entry ATagged aslisted under the tableWhereGenesis 27:45until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him…
childlessStrong's entry BTagged aslisted under the tableWherein the ledger below
barennessStrong's entry CTagged aslisted under the tableWherein the ledger below

How the Greek text is glossed, word by word

  • I have been bereaved2
  • and abortion1
  • and bereaving1
  • and I will bereave them1
  • and it will make childless1
  • and it will make childless it1
  • and they will make childless you1
  • causing abortions1
  • I have made childless1
  • it has bereaved1
  • it has made childless1
  • it miscarries1

and 10 more, 23 uses in all

The words built on the same word-part

Each word below begins with the same letters this one begins with. A shared word-part shows a family. It does not settle what any one of them means, so each word carries its own uses on its own page. Scholars call that shared part the stem.

שָׁכַבshakabto lie down: lay downUses212
שָׁכַןshakanto dwellUses129
שָׁכַחshakachto forgetUses102
שָׁכַםshakamto riseUses65
שָׁכֵןshakenneighboringUses20
שָׁכַרshakarbe drunkUses19
שָׁכַךְshakakto subsideUses5
שָׁכֵחַshakeachforgetfulUses2
שָׁכָהshakahto lustUses1

All 23, in canonical order

Every use, in order

Every use, grouped by book, with its verse.

23 spellings and their grammar

STEP Bible tags every word of the Hebrew and Greek text with its spelling and its grammar. Both lists below count the rows printed underneath, written out in English, with the code beside each one as it was tagged.

How it is spelled

  • אֶשְׁכַּ֛ל1
  • וּמְשַׁכֶּ֥לֶת1
  • וּמְשַׁכָּֽלֶת׃1
  • וְשִׁכְּלָ֣ה1
  • וְשִׁכְּלֻ֔ךְ1
  • וְשִׁכְּלָ֑תָּה1
  • וְשִׁכַּלְתִּ֖ים1
  • לְשַׁכְּלָֽם׃ ס1
  • מַשְׁכִּ֔יל1
  • מְשַׁכֵּלָ֥ה1
  • מְשַׁכָּֽלֶת׃1
  • שִׁכְּלָ֤ה1

and 11 more spellings in the ledger below.

The grammar of each form

  • verb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 3rd person feminine singular3HVpi3fs
  • verb · intensive (piel), qatal (perfect) · 3rd person feminine singular2HVpp3fs
  • verb · intensive (piel), participle · feminine singular2HVprfsa
  • verb · simple (qal), qatal (perfect) · 1st person common singular2HVqp1cs
  • Hc/Vpq1cs/Sp3mp1Hc/Vpq1cs/Sp3mp
  • Hc/Vpq3cp/Sp2fs1Hc/Vpq3cp/Sp2fs
  • Hc/Vpq3fs1Hc/Vpq3fs
  • Hc/Vpq3fs/Sp3fs1Hc/Vpq3fs/Sp3fs
  • conjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive (piel), participle · feminine singular1HC/Vprfsa
  • conjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive (piel), participle · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)1HC/Vprfsc
  • preposition + verb · intensive (piel), infinitive (“to…”) + pronoun suffix · 3rd person masculine plural1HR/Vpcc/Sp3mp
  • verb · causative (hiphil), participle · masculine singular1HVhrmsa

Genesis

five uses
  • until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

    Genesis 27:45

    • אֶשְׁכַּ֛לʾeshkalverb · simple (qal), yiqtol (imperfect) · 1st person common singulartagged: will I be bereaved
  • I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flock.

    Genesis 31:38

    • שִׁכֵּ֑לוּshikeluverb · intensive (piel), qatal (perfect) · 3rd person common pluraltagged: they have miscarried
  • Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is no more. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is going against me!”

    Genesis 42:36

    • שִׁכַּלְתֶּ֑םshikaltemverb · intensive (piel), qatal (perfect) · 2nd person masculine pluraltagged: you are making childless
  • May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

    Genesis 43:14

    • שָׁכֹ֖לְתִּיshakholetiverb · simple (qal), qatal (perfect) · 1st person common singulartagged: I have been bereaved
    • שָׁכָֽלְתִּי׃shakhaltiverb · simple (qal), qatal (perfect) · 1st person common singulartagged: I have been bereaved

Exodus

one use
  • No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.

    Exodus 23:26

    • מְשַׁכֵּלָ֥הmeshakelahverb · intensive (piel), participle · feminine singulartagged: miscarrying

Leviticus

one use
  • I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

    Leviticus 26:22

    • וְשִׁכְּלָ֣הveshikelahHc/Vpq3fstagged: and it will make childless

Deuteronomy

one use
  • Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man.

    Deuteronomy 32:25

    • תְּשַׁכֶּל־teshakel-verb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 3rd person feminine singulartagged: it will make childless

1 Samuel

two uses
  • But Samuel declared: “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.

    1 Samuel 15:33

    • שִׁכְּלָ֤הshikelahverb · intensive (piel), qatal (perfect) · 3rd person feminine singulartagged: it has made childless
    • תִּשְׁכַּ֥לtishkalverb · simple (qal), yiqtol (imperfect) · 3rd person feminine singulartagged: she will become childless

2 Kings

two uses
  • Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Please note, our lord, that the city’s location is good, as you can see. But the water is bad and the land is unfruitful.”

    2 Kings 2:19

    • מְשַׁכָּֽלֶת׃meshakaletverb · intensive (piel), participle · feminine singulartagged: causing abortions
  • and Elisha went out to the spring, cast the salt into it, and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘I have healed this water. No longer will it cause death or unfruitfulness.’”

    2 Kings 2:21

    • וּמְשַׁכָּֽלֶת׃umeshakaletconjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive (piel), participle · feminine singulartagged: and abortion

Job

one use
  • Their bulls breed without fail; their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.

    Job 21:10

    • תְשַׁכֵּֽל׃teshakelverb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 3rd person feminine singulartagged: it miscarries

Jeremiah

one use
  • I will scatter them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land. I will bereave and destroy My people who have not turned from their ways.

    Jeremiah 15:7

    • שִׁכַּ֤לְתִּיshikaltiverb · intensive (piel), qatal (perfect) · 1st person common singulartagged: I have made childless

Lamentations

one use
  • See, O LORD, how distressed I am! I am churning within; my heart is pounding within me, for I have been most rebellious. Outside, the sword bereaves; inside, there is death.

    Lamentations 1:20

    • שִׁכְּלָה־shikelah-verb · intensive (piel), qatal (perfect) · 3rd person feminine singulartagged: it has bereaved

Ezekiel

five uses
  • I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

    Ezekiel 5:17

    • וְשִׁכְּלֻ֔ךְveshikelukhHc/Vpq3cp/Sp2fstagged: and they will make childless you
  • Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts,

    Ezekiel 14:15

    • וְשִׁכְּלָ֑תָּהveshikelatahHc/Vpq3fs/Sp3fstagged: and it will make childless it
  • Yes, I will cause My people Israel to walk upon you; they will possess you, and you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them of their children.

    Ezekiel 36:12

    • לְשַׁכְּלָֽם׃ סleshakelampreposition + verb · intensive (piel), infinitive (“to…”) + pronoun suffix · 3rd person masculine pluraltagged: to bereave them
  • For this is what the Lord GOD says: Because people say to you, ‘You devour men and deprive your nation of its children,’

    Ezekiel 36:13

    • וּמְשַׁכֶּ֥לֶתumeshakeletconjunction (“and”) + verb · intensive (piel), participle · feminine singular · in construct (“…of”)tagged: and bereaving
  • therefore you will no longer devour men or deprive your nation of its children, declares the Lord GOD.

    Ezekiel 36:14

    • תְשַׁכְּלִיtekhasheli-verb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 2nd person feminine singulartagged: you will bereave

Hosea

two uses
  • Even if they raise their children, I will bereave them of each one. Yes, woe be to them when I turn away from them!

    Hosea 9:12

    • וְשִׁכַּלְתִּ֖יםveshikaltimHc/Vpq1cs/Sp3mptagged: and I will bereave them
  • Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!

    Hosea 9:14

    • מַשְׁכִּ֔ילmashkilverb · causative (hiphil), participle · masculine singulartagged: miscarry

Malachi

one use
  • I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the LORD of Hosts.

    Malachi 3:11

    • תְשַׁכֵּ֨לteshakelverb · intensive (piel), yiqtol (imperfect) · 3rd person feminine singulartagged: it will prove barren

The letters

Where it leads

How the numbers are counted

Every count on this page comes from STEP Bible's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, the same text the ledger prints. A use is counted once each time the tagging marks a word with this key.

Spellings are counted as the Greek text spells them, with the sentence's own punctuation taken off the word first, so a form that ends a clause is not counted as a second spelling.

The words it stands beside are the nouns, verbs and adjectives immediately before or after it, counted in every verse where the word stands. The article, the conjunctions and the prepositions are left out, because they stand beside every word.

The family is read from the lexicon by the stem the two words share, with the accents off, and a person or a place named on the stem is left out.

Hebrew and Greek text, word tagging and grammar: STEP Bible (www.STEPBible.org), Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0. Their grammar codes are written out in English here and shown as tagged beside each one.

Meaning and senses: STEP Bible TBESH gloss (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary key: Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890, public domain). English verse text: Berean Standard Bible (public domain, 2023).

Revised 2026-09-05. Every cited work, the sources registry →