sachak · laugh, play

What it means

sachak (שָׂחַק) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “laugh, play”.

Entertain; sometimes mock.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To burst into laughter because something pleases.
2. To mock someone.
3. To make merry with music and dance.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• laughs ×9
• laugh ×6
• play ×4
• playing ×3
• those who make merry ×3
• were celebrating ×2
• I will celebrate ×1
• When I smiled ×1
• celebrating ×1
• entertain them ×1
• others ×5

Where it appears

• Judges×2
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×3
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Job×9
• Psalms×5
• Proverbs×6
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Jeremiah×3
• Lamentations×1
• Habakkuk×1
• Zechariah×1

• Judges 16:25

  And it happened, when their heart was merry, that they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson from the house of the prisoners, and he made them laugh in their presence; and they stood him between the pillars.

• Judges 16:27

  Now the house was full of men and women, and there were all the lords of the Philistines; and on the roof were about three thousand men and women who were watching Samson entertain them.

• 1 Samuel 18:7

  The women who were making merry answered and said, “Saul has struck his thousands, and David his myriads.”

• 2 Samuel 2:14

  Abner said to Joab, “Let the young men arise, please, and play before us.” Joab said, “Let them arise.”

• 2 Samuel 6:5

  David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before YHWH with all kinds of instruments of cypress wood, with lyres, with harps, with tambourines, with sistrums, and with cymbals.

• 2 Samuel 6:21

  David said to Michal, “Before YHWH, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to command me to be leader over the people of YHWH, over Israel, before YHWH I will celebrate.

• 1 Chronicles 13:8

  And David and all Israel were celebrating before Elohim with all their strength, with songs and with lyres and with harps and with tambourines and with cymbals and with trumpets.

• 1 Chronicles 15:29

  And it happened that as the ark of the covenant of YHWH was coming to the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked down through the window and saw King David leaping and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart.

• 2 Chronicles 30:10

  So the runners were passing from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun; but they were laughing at them and mocking them.

• Job 5:22

  At devastation and at starvation you will laugh, and you will not fear the animals of the earth.

• Job 29:24

  When I smiled on them, they did not believe it, and the light of my face they did not cast down.

• Job 30:1

  But now they laugh at me, those younger than I in days, whose fathers I despised to put with the dogs of my flock.

• Job 39:7

  He laughs at the multitude of the city; the clamor of the driver he does not hear.

• Job 39:18

  When she soars on high, she laughs at the horse and at its rider.

• Job 39:22

  He laughs at dread and is not dismayed, and does not turn back from the sword.

• Job 40:20

  For the mountains bring it produce, and all the animals of the field play there.

• Job 41:5

  Will you play with it as with a bird, or bind it for your girls?

• Job 41:29

  Like stubble is counted the club, and it laughs at the shaking of the javelin.

• Psalms 2:4

  He who sits in the heavens laughs; Adonai mocks them.

• Psalms 37:13

  Adonai laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming.

• Psalms 52:6

  And the righteous will see and fear, and at him they will laugh:

• Psalms 59:8

  But you, YHWH, laugh at them; you mock all the nations.

• Psalms 104:26

  There the ships go, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.

• Proverbs 1:26

  I too will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes,

• Proverbs 8:30

  I was beside him, a master builder, and I was his delight day by day, playing before him at all times,

• Proverbs 8:31

  playing in the world of his earth, and my delights were with the children of man.

• Proverbs 26:19

  so is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “Was I not joking?”

• Proverbs 29:9

  A wise man who goes to law with a foolish man, whether he rages or laughs, there is no rest.

• Proverbs 31:25

  Strength and splendor are her clothing, and she laughs at the day to come.

• Ecclesiastes 3:4

  a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance;

• Jeremiah 15:17

  I did not sit in the circle of those who make merry, nor did I exult; because of your hand I sat alone, for with indignation you filled me.

• Jeremiah 30:19

  And out of them will go thanksgiving and the sound of those who make merry; and I will multiply them, and they will not decrease; and I will honor them, and they will not be made small.

• Jeremiah 31:4

  Again I will build you, and you will be built, virgin of Israel; again you will adorn yourself with your tambourines, and go out in the dance of those who make merry.

• Lamentations 1:7

  Jerusalem remembers, in the days of her affliction and her wandering, all her precious things that were hers from the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and there was no one to help her; the adversaries saw her; they laughed at her ruin.

• Habakkuk 1:10

  And it scoffs at kings, and dignitaries are a laughingstock to it; it laughs at every fortress, and heaps up dirt and captures it.

• Zechariah 8:5

  And the squares of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its squares.