שָׂפָה
safa · lip, language, edge
Hebrew word · Strong’s number H8193 · appears 175 times in the Bible
What is the Strong number?
Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.What it means
safa (שָׂפָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “lip, language, edge”.
Lip. From there, the way of speaking: speech or language. Also the shore or edge of something.
How to say it
sa·fa
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
- The part of the mouth with which one speaks, and so what one says.
- The tongue proper to a people, the language it speaks.
- The edge where the sea or a river ends and the land begins.
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)
Word study
Lip; hence speech and the language of a people; and by likeness, the shore or edge. BDB: the lip, as a natural boundary; by implication, language; by analogy, a margin (of a vessel, of water, of cloth…).
- The lips in speaking or praying 1 Samuel 1:13Isaiah 6:5
- “One language” Genesis 11:1
- A language one does not understand Psalms 81:5
- The shore of the sea or the bank of the river Genesis 22:17Genesis 41:3
- The edge of a curtain Exodus 26:4
Historical and cultural background
In 1 Samuel 1:13 Hannah “was speaking in her heart; only her lips were moving, and her voice was not heard”, and Eli takes her to be drunk.
How we translate it
“Lips” 111 times, “lip” 7, “edge” 14, “bank” 12, “rim” 9, “shore” 8, “language” 8, “speech” 4. In Genesis 11 it is the common language of humanity, “one language”; in Psalm 81:5, “A language that I did not know”.
How it is translated
The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.
- lips ×111
- edge ×14
- bank ×12
- rim ×9
- language ×8
- shore ×8
- lip ×7
- speech ×4
- binding ×2
Related words
Words that come from it
Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.
Where it appears
- Genesis×8
- Exodus×17
- Leviticus×1
- Numbers×3
- Deuteronomy×3
- Joshua×4
- Judges×2
- 1 Samuel×2
- 1 Kings×6
- 2 Kings×3
- 2 Chronicles×5
- Job×12
- Psalms×28
- Proverbs×46
- Ecclesiastes×1
- Song of Songs×4
- Isaiah×13
- Jeremiah×1
- Lamentations×1
- Ezekiel×7
- Daniel×3
- Hosea×1
- Habakkuk×1
- Zephaniah×1
- Malachi×2
- Genesis 11:1
All the earth had one language and the same words.
- Genesis 11:6
And YHWH said, “Look, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have begun to do; and now nothing that they plan to do will be out of reach for them.
- Genesis 11:7
Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that no one will understand the language of his neighbor.”
- Genesis 11:9
That is why its name was called Babel, because there YHWH confused the language of all the earth, and from there YHWH scattered them over the face of all the earth.
- Genesis 22:17
that I will surely bless you and will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the shore of the sea; and your offspring will possess the gate of its enemies.
- Genesis 41:3
And look, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly in appearance and thin in flesh, and they stood beside the other cows on the bank of the Nile.
- Genesis 41:17
Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph: “In my dream, look, I was standing on the bank of the Nile;
- Exodus 2:3
When she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of papyrus, coated it with bitumen and with pitch, put the child in it, and set it among the reeds on the bank of the Nile.
- Exodus 6:12
But Moses spoke before YHWH, saying, “Look, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, since I am slow of lips?”
- Exodus 6:30
But Moses said before YHWH, “Look, I am slow of lips; how then will Pharaoh listen to me?”
- Exodus 7:15
Go to Pharaoh in the morning; look, he is going out to the water. Station yourself to meet him on the bank of the Nile, and the staff that was turned into a serpent you shall take in your hand.
- Exodus 14:30
So YHWH saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the shore of the sea.
- Exodus 26:4
You shall make loops of blue on the edge of the one curtain at the end of the set; and likewise you shall make them on the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set.
- Exodus 26:10
You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain in the first set, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain of the second set.
- Exodus 28:26
You shall make two rings of gold and put them on the two ends of the breastpiece, on its edge that is toward the side of the ephod, inward.
- Exodus 28:32
There shall be an opening for its head in its middle, with a binding around its opening, the work of a weaver; like the opening of a coat of mail it shall be for it, so that it will not tear.
- Exodus 36:11
And he made loops of blue on the edge of the one curtain at the end in the set; so he made on the edge of the outermost curtain in the second set.
- Exodus 36:17
And he made fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain in the set, and fifty loops he made on the edge of the curtain of the second set.
- Exodus 39:19
And they made two rings of gold and put them on the two ends of the breastpiece, on its edge that was on the side of the ephod inward.
- Exodus 39:23
And the opening of the robe was in its middle, like the opening of a coat of mail, with a binding for its opening all around, so that it would not be torn.
- Leviticus 5:4
Or if a person swears, speaking rashly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in any matter that a man may speak rashly in an oath, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it he will be guilty in one of these.
- Numbers 30:6
And if she does belong to a husband while her vows are on her, or the rash utterance of her lips that she has bound on her soul,
- Numbers 30:8
But if on the day her husband hears of it he forbids her, then he annuls her vow that is on her and the rash utterance of her lips that she has bound on her soul; and YHWH will forgive her.
- Numbers 30:12
But if her husband does annul them on the day he hears of them, nothing that came out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning the obligation of her soul shall stand; her husband has annulled them, and YHWH will forgive her.
- Deuteronomy 2:36
From Aroer, which is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, and the city that is in the wadi, as far as Gilead, there was not a town that was too high for us; YHWH our Elohim delivered all of them before us.
- Deuteronomy 4:48
from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Wadi Arnon, as far as Mount Siyon, that is, Hermon,
- Deuteronomy 23:23
What goes out of your lips you shall keep and do, just as you have vowed to YHWH your Elohim a freewill offering that you have spoken with your mouth.
- Joshua 11:4
They came out, they and all their camps with them, a people as many as the sand that is on the shore of the sea, in multitude, and horses and chariots, very many.
- Joshua 12:2
Sihon king of the Amorite, who lived in Heshbon, ruling from Aroer, which is on the edge of the brook Arnon, and the middle of the brook, and half of Gilead, as far as the brook Jabbok, the border of the sons of Ammon;
- Joshua 13:9
from Aroer, which is on the bank of the brook Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the brook, and all the plateau of Medeba as far as Dibon;
- Joshua 13:16
And their territory was from Aroer, which is on the bank of the brook Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the brook, and all the plateau by Medeba;
- Judges 7:12
Midian and Amalek and all the sons of the east were lying in the valley like locusts in multitude; and their camels were without number, like the sand that is on the shore of the sea in multitude.
- Judges 7:22
They blew the three hundred horns, and YHWH set the sword of each against his companion, throughout all the camp; and the camp fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath.
- 1 Samuel 1:13
Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips were moving, and her voice was not heard. So Eli took her to be drunk.
- 1 Samuel 13:5
The Philistines gathered to fight with Israel: thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people like the sand that is on the shore of the sea in multitude. They came up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven.
- 1 Kings 4:29
And Elohim gave Solomon wisdom and understanding in very great measure, and breadth of heart like the sand that is on the shore of the sea.
- 1 Kings 7:23
And he made the Sea of cast metal, ten cubits from its rim to its rim, round all around, and five cubits its height; and a line of thirty cubits went around it all around.
- 1 Kings 7:24
And gourds below its rim all around surrounded it, ten to the cubit, encircling the Sea all around; the gourds were in two rows, cast in its casting.
- 1 Kings 7:26
And its thickness was a handbreadth, and its rim like the work of the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom; it held two thousand baths.
- 1 Kings 9:26
And King Solomon made ships in Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth, on the shore of the Sea of Reeds, in the land of Edom.
And 135 more times.