meshuva · turning away, faithlessness

What it means

meshuva (מְשׁוּבָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “turning away, faithlessness”.

Turning away, going astray from the right path; also faithlessness or rebellion against God.

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 turn one's back on God; to abandon his way.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• apostasies ×4
• apostate ×4
• turning away ×3
• apostasy ×1

Where it appears

• Proverbs×1
• Jeremiah×9
• Hosea×2

• Proverbs 1:32

  For the turning away of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of the senseless will destroy them.

• Jeremiah 2:19

  Your evil will discipline you, and your apostasies will rebuke you; know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake YHWH your Elohim, and that the dread of me is not in you, declares Adonai YHWH Tsevaot.

• Jeremiah 3:6

  And YHWH said to me in the days of King Josiah, “Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She went up on every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and prostituted herself there.

• Jeremiah 3:8

  And I saw that for all the reasons that apostate Israel had committed adultery, I had sent her away and given her her certificate of divorce; yet treacherous Judah, her sister, did not fear, but she went and prostituted herself too, she herself.

• Jeremiah 3:11

  And YHWH said to me, “Apostate Israel has shown herself righteous more than treacherous Judah.

• Jeremiah 3:12

  Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, apostate Israel, declares YHWH; I will not make my face fall on you, for I am faithful, declares YHWH; I will not keep it forever.

• Jeremiah 3:22

  “Return, wayward children; I will heal your apostasies.” “Look, we come to you, for you are YHWH our Elohim.

• Jeremiah 5:6

  Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them, a wolf of the steppes will devastate them, a leopard is watching over their cities; everyone who goes out of them will be torn to pieces, for their transgressions are many, their apostasies are mighty.

• Jeremiah 8:5

  Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned wayward in perpetual apostasy? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.

• Jeremiah 14:7

  Though our iniquities testify against us, YHWH, act for the sake of your name; for our apostasies are many; against you we have sinned.

• Hosea 11:7

  And my people are hung up on their turning away from me; and to the height they call him, but together he does not exalt them.

• Hosea 14:4

  I will heal their turning away; I will love them freely; for my anger has turned from him.