shamem · be desolate, be appalled

What it means

shamem (שָׁמֵם) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “be desolate, be appalled”.

Be desolate, laid waste; also be stunned, appalled at a ruin.

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 be left empty and ruined, or make it so.
2. To be struck with dread at the ruin.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To be desolate, laid waste; and, before the ruin, to be stunned, appalled. The two ideas go together: what is laid waste leaves the one who sees it appalled. BDB: to devastate; from there, to stun, be astonished. Of the same root is שְׁמָמָה, “desolation” (H8077).

• YHWH lays the land waste Leviticus 26:32
• Desolate lands and roads Lamentations 1:4Isaiah 49:8Ezekiel 36:34
• Being appalled Ezra 9:3
• Being appalled at the ruin 1 Kings 9:8Jeremiah 2:12
• “One who makes desolate” Daniel 9:27

How we translate it

“Desolate” 43 times; “be appalled” 8, “appalled” 5, “are appalled” 4 when it is a person's reaction (“sat appalled”, Ezra 9:3); “will be horrified” 4 (Jeremiah 49:17), “lay waste” 3. Leviticus 26:32 shows both senses side by side: “I will lay waste the land, and your enemies… will be appalled at it”.

How it is translated

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

• desolate ×43
• be appalled ×8
• appalled ×5
• are appalled ×4
• will be horrified ×4
• desolated ×3
• desolations ×3
• lay waste ×3
• they have laid waste ×2
• I might devastate them ×1
• others ×9

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Leviticus×7
• Numbers×1
• 1 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×1
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Ezra×2
• Job×4
• Psalms×4
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×10
• Jeremiah×11
• Lamentations×4
• Ezekiel×24
• Daniel×7
• Hosea×1
• Joel×1
• Amos×2
• Micah×1
• Zephaniah×1

• Leviticus 26:22

  And I will send among you the animals of the field, and they will bereave you and destroy your beasts and make you few, and your roads will become desolate.

• Leviticus 26:31

  And I will make your cities a ruin and lay waste your sanctuaries, and I will not smell your pleasing aroma.

• Leviticus 26:32

  And I will lay waste the land, and your enemies who live in it will be appalled at it.

• Leviticus 26:34

  Then the land will enjoy its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will cease and enjoy its Sabbaths.

• Leviticus 26:35

  All the days it lies desolate it will cease, what it did not cease on your Sabbaths when you lived on it.

• Leviticus 26:43

  But the land will be abandoned by them and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them; and they will accept the payment for their iniquity, because, yes, because they rejected my rules and their soul loathed my statutes.

• Numbers 21:30

  But we shot them down; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon, and we laid waste as far as Nophah, which reaches as far as Medeba.”

• 1 Samuel 5:6

  And the hand of YHWH was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and he devastated them and struck them with tumors, Ashdod and its territories.

• 1 Kings 9:8

  And this house will be high; everyone who passes by it will be appalled and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has YHWH done thus to this land and to this house?’

• 2 Chronicles 7:21

  And this house, which was high, everyone passing by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has YHWH done thus to this land and to this house?’

• 2 Chronicles 36:21

  to fulfill the word of YHWH by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths; all the days of its desolation it ceased, to fulfill seventy years.

• Ezra 9:3

  And when I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled out some of the hair of my head and my beard, and sat appalled.

• Ezra 9:4

  And to me gathered everyone who trembled at the words of the Elohim of Israel because of the unfaithfulness of the exiles, while I sat appalled until the evening offering.

• Job 16:7

  But now he has wearied me; you have devastated all my community.

• Job 17:8

  The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent rouses himself against the godless.

• Job 18:20

  At his day those after are appalled, and horror seizes those before.

• Job 21:5

  Turn to me and be appalled, and put your hand over your mouth.

• Psalms 40:15

  Let them be desolate because of their shame, those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”

• Psalms 69:25

  Let their encampment be desolate; in their tents let there be no one who dwells.

• Psalms 79:7

  for they have devoured Jacob, and his abode they have laid waste.

• Psalms 143:4

  And my spirit grows faint within me; in my midst my heart is desolate.

• Ecclesiastes 7:16

  Do not be righteous overmuch, and do not act overly wise; why should you ruin yourself?

• Isaiah 33:8

  The highways are desolate; the traveler on the path has ceased. He has broken the covenant, he has despised cities, he has no regard for mortals.

• Isaiah 49:8

  Thus says YHWH: “In a time of favor I answered you, and in a day of salvation I helped you; and I will keep you and make you a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate inheritances;

• Isaiah 49:19

  For your ruins and your desolate places and the land of your destruction surely now will be too narrow for the inhabitant, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

• Isaiah 52:14

  Just as many were astonished at you —so disfigured, beyond that of a man, was his appearance, and his form, beyond that of human beings—

• Isaiah 54:1

  “Shout for joy, barren one, who did not give birth; break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who did not have birth pains; for more are the children of the desolate one than the children of the married one,” says YHWH.

• Isaiah 54:3

  For to the right and to the left you will spread out; and your offspring will possess nations, and they will make desolate cities inhabited.

• Isaiah 59:16

  And he saw that there was no man, and he was astonished that there was no one to intercede; so his arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness, it upheld him.

• Isaiah 61:4

  And they will build the ancient ruins; the former desolations they will raise up; and they will renew the ruined cities, the desolations of generation after generation.

• Isaiah 63:5

  And I looked, but there was no one to help; and I was astonished, but there was no one to uphold; so my arm brought me salvation, and my fury, it upheld me.

• Jeremiah 2:12

  Be appalled, heavens, at this, and shudder, be utterly desolate, declares YHWH.

• Jeremiah 4:9

  And it will happen on that day, declares YHWH, the heart of the king will perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests will be appalled, and the prophets will be astounded.

• Jeremiah 10:25

  Pour out your fury on the nations that do not know you, and on the families that do not call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and his abode they have laid waste.

• Jeremiah 12:11

  They have made it a desolation; it mourns before me, desolate; desolate is all the land, for there is no man who takes it to heart.

• Jeremiah 18:16

  to make their land a horror, a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and shake his head.

• Jeremiah 19:8

  And I will make this city a horror and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss over all its wounds.

• Jeremiah 33:10

  Thus says YHWH: Once more there will be heard in this place, of which you are saying, ‘It is laid waste, without human being and without livestock,’ in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without human being and without inhabitant and without livestock,

• Jeremiah 49:17

  And Edom will become a horror; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss over all its wounds.

• Jeremiah 49:20

  Therefore hear the counsel of YHWH which he has counseled against Edom, and his plans which he has planned against the inhabitants of Teman: surely they will drag them away, the little ones of the flock; surely he will make desolate their fold because of them.

And 45 more times.