shachat · corrupt, destroy

What it means

shachat (שָׁחַת) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “corrupt, destroy”.

Spoil, corrupt; destroy, ruin. The same verb can say what people do to the earth (corrupt it) and what God does in judgment (destroy).

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 spoil: to stop being useful, or to turn from good and become wicked.
2. To ruin something completely, until it no longer exists or no longer serves.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To spoil, to corrupt; and from there, to destroy. BDB: to decay; causatively, to ruin, literally or figuratively. From the same root comes מַשְׁחִית, “destroyer”.

• “The earth was corrupt” Genesis 6:11Genesis 6:12
• “To destroy all flesh” Genesis 6:17
• “I will not destroy {it}”: Abraham's intercession Genesis 18:31Genesis 19:29
• “The destroyer” at the Passover Exodus 12:23
• “He will not fail you or destroy you” Deuteronomy 4:31

Historical and cultural background

In Genesis 6:11-17 the same verb says what humanity did to the earth (“the earth was corrupt”) and what Elohim is going to do (“to destroy all flesh”).

How we translate it

“Destroy” 69 times, “destroyed” 20, “destroying” 12, “destroys” 6, “destroyer” 3, “destroyers” 3, “corrupt” 6, “act corruptly” 3… This edition's glossary sets שׁחת = “corrupt, destroy”: “corrupt” where something is spoiled (Genesis 6:11-12), “destroy” where something is brought to an end.

How it is translated

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

• destroy ×69
• destroyed ×20
• destroying ×12
• corrupt ×6
• destroys ×6
• act corruptly ×3
• brought down ×3
• destroyer ×3
• destroyers ×3
• have acted corruptly ×3
• others ×19

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×17
• Exodus×4
• Leviticus×1
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×11
• Joshua×1
• Judges×7
• Ruth×1
• 1 Samuel×6
• 2 Samuel×7
• 2 Kings×5
• 1 Chronicles×5
• 2 Chronicles×10
• Psalms×5
• Proverbs×6
• Isaiah×11
• Jeremiah×21
• Lamentations×3
• Ezekiel×11
• Daniel×5
• Hosea×3
• Amos×1
• Nahum×1
• Zephaniah×1
• Malachi×3

• Genesis 6:11

  And the earth was corrupt before Elohim, and the earth was filled with violence.

• Genesis 6:12

  And Elohim saw the earth, and look, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth.

• Genesis 6:13

  And Elohim said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and look, I am going to destroy them with the earth.

• Genesis 6:17

  And I, look, I am bringing the flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the spirit of life, from under the heavens; everything that is on the earth will perish.

• Genesis 9:11

  And I will establish my covenant with you: and never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

• Genesis 9:15

  that I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living being of all flesh; and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

• Genesis 13:10

  Lot lifted his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that all of it was well-watered (before YHWH destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of YHWH, like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zoar.

• Genesis 18:28

  Perhaps the fifty righteous will lack five; will you destroy for the five the whole city?” He said, “I will not destroy it if I find there forty-five.”

• Genesis 18:31

  He said, “Look, I have ventured to speak to Adonai: perhaps twenty will be found there.” He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

• Genesis 18:32

  He said, “Please let Adonai not be angry, and I will speak only this once: perhaps ten will be found there.” He said, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten.”

• Genesis 19:13

  for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become great before YHWH, and YHWH has sent us to destroy it.”

• Genesis 19:14

  So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Get up, get out of this place, for YHWH is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to be joking in the eyes of his sons-in-law.

• Genesis 19:29

  So it was that when Elohim destroyed the cities of the plain, Elohim remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overturning, when he overturned the cities in which Lot had lived.

• Genesis 38:9

  But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, he wasted it on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother.

• Exodus 8:24

  YHWH did so; heavy swarms of flies came into the house of Pharaoh and the house of his servants, and in all the land of Egypt the land was ruined because of the swarms of flies.

• Exodus 12:23

  For YHWH will pass through to strike Egypt; and when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, YHWH will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to enter your houses to strike you.

• Exodus 21:26

  When a man strikes the eye of his male slave or the eye of his female slave and destroys it, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.

• Exodus 32:7

  And YHWH spoke to Moses, “Go, go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly.

• Leviticus 19:27

  You shall not round off the edge of your head, and you shall not destroy the edge of your beard.

• Numbers 32:15

  If you turn away from following him, he will again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all this people.”

• Deuteronomy 4:16

  so that you do not act corruptly and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any idol, the representation of male or female,

• Deuteronomy 4:25

  When you father children and children’s children, and you have grown old in the land, and you act corruptly and make a carved image, the form of anything, and do what is evil in the eyes of YHWH your Elohim, provoking him to anger,

• Deuteronomy 4:31

  For a merciful El is YHWH your Elohim; he will not fail you or destroy you or forget the covenant of your fathers that he swore to them.

• Deuteronomy 9:12

  YHWH said to me, “Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you brought out of Egypt have acted corruptly; they have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast image.”

• Deuteronomy 9:26

  I prayed to YHWH and said, “Adonai YHWH, do not destroy your people and your inheritance, whom you ransomed by your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a strong hand.

• Deuteronomy 10:10

  I stood on the mountain, as in the first days, forty days and forty nights; and YHWH listened to me that time also; YHWH was not willing to destroy you.

• Deuteronomy 20:19

  When you besiege a city many days, fighting against it to capture it, you shall not destroy its trees by swinging an axe against them, for from them you may eat, and you shall not cut them down. Is the tree of the field a human being, to come before you in the siege?

• Deuteronomy 20:20

  Only a tree that you know that it is not a tree for food, it you may destroy and cut down, and build siegeworks against the city that is making war with you, until it falls.

• Deuteronomy 31:29

  For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the days to come, because you will do what is evil in the eyes of YHWH, provoking him to anger with the work of your hands.”

• Deuteronomy 32:5

  They have acted corruptly toward him; they are not his children, because of their defect, a crooked and twisted generation.

• Joshua 22:33

  And the report was good in the eyes of the sons of Israel; and the sons of Israel blessed Elohim, and did not speak of going up against them with the army to destroy the land where the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad lived.

• Judges 2:19

  But when the judge died, they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them; they did not let go of any of their deeds or of their stubborn way.

• Judges 6:4

  They would camp against them and destroy the produce of the land as far as your coming to Gaza, and they would not leave sustenance in Israel, neither lamb nor ox nor donkey.

• Judges 6:5

  For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, and they would come like locusts in multitude; both they and their camels were without number; and they came into the land to destroy it.

• Judges 20:21

  And the sons of Benjamin came out from Gibeah and brought down in Israel on that day twenty-two thousand men to the ground.

• Judges 20:25

  And Benjamin went out to meet them from Gibeah on the second day and brought down among the sons of Israel another eighteen thousand men to the ground; all these were men who drew the sword.

• Judges 20:35

  And YHWH struck down Benjamin before Israel, and the sons of Israel brought down in Benjamin on that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men; all these were men who drew the sword.

• Judges 20:42

  So they turned before the men of Israel toward the way of the wilderness, but the war overtook them, and those who came from the cities were destroying them in their midst.

• Ruth 4:6

  The kinsman-redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I destroy my inheritance. You redeem my redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem.”

• 1 Samuel 6:5

  So you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that are destroying the land, and give glory to the Elohim of Israel; perhaps he will lighten his hand from upon you and from upon your gods and from upon your land.

And 107 more times.