shaka · give drink, water

What it means

shaka (שָׁקָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “give drink, water”.

Give drink to; water (land or animals).

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 give water or another liquid to people or animals.
2. To water the land.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To give drink; to water. It is the causative form that corresponds to שָׁתָה (‘drink’): to make people or animals drink, or to give water to the land. From the same root is מַשְׁקֶה (‘drink’; ‘cupbearer’).

• Giving drink to a guest Genesis 24:18Judges 4:19
• Watering the flock at the well Genesis 29:10Exodus 2:17
• Watering the land or the garden Genesis 2:6Genesis 2:10Psalms 104:13
• Water from the crag for the people Numbers 20:8Psalms 78:15
• Figurative: giving sour wine, tears, poison to drink Psalms 69:21Psalms 80:5Jeremiah 9:15

Historical and cultural background

At the wells women and shepherds watered the livestock: Rachel with Laban’s sheep (Genesis 29:10), and the daughters of the priest of Midian, whom Moses defended from the shepherds (Exodus 2:17).

How we translate it

“Drink” 39 times, because the verb is usually rendered with a phrase: “gave him a drink”, “give drink”, “gave me to drink”; “water” 14 times and “watered” 5 when the object is the land or the flock (“a mist would go up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground”, Genesis 2:6; Jacob “watered the sheep of Laban”, Genesis 29:10).

How it is translated

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

• drink ×39
• water ×14
• watered ×5
• He waters ×1
• moist ×1
• they gave him ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×19
• Exodus×4
• Numbers×4
• Deuteronomy×1
• Judges×2
• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Esther×1
• Job×2
• Psalms×7
• Proverbs×1
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×2
• Jeremiah×7
• Ezekiel×2
• Joel×1
• Amos×1
• Habakkuk×1

• Genesis 2:6

  but a mist would go up from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.

• Genesis 2:10

  And a river went out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four branches.

• Genesis 19:32

  Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring from our father.”

• Genesis 19:33

  So they made their father drink wine that night; and the older went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.

• Genesis 19:34

  The next day the older said to the younger, “Look, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, so that we may preserve offspring from our father.”

• Genesis 19:35

  So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger got up and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she rose.

• Genesis 21:19

  Then Elohim opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave a drink to the boy.

• Genesis 24:14

  Let it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your jar so that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels,’ she is the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown loyal love to my lord.”

• Genesis 24:18

  She said, “Drink, my lord.” And she quickly lowered her jar onto her hand and gave him a drink.

• Genesis 24:19

  When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, “I will also draw water for your camels until they have finished drinking.”

• Genesis 24:43

  look, I am standing by the spring of water. Let it be that the young woman who comes out to draw, and to whom I say, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar,”

• Genesis 24:45

  Before I had finished speaking in my heart, look, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’

• Genesis 24:46

  She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels.’ So I drank, and she watered the camels too.

• Genesis 29:2

  He looked, and look, a well in the field, and look, there three flocks of sheep were lying beside it, for from that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the mouth of the well was large.

• Genesis 29:3

  When all the flocks were gathered there, they would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put back the stone on the mouth of the well in its place.

• Genesis 29:7

  He said, “Look, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.”

• Genesis 29:8

  They said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”

• Genesis 29:10

  When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother.

• Exodus 2:16

  The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water and filled the troughs to water the flock of their father.

• Exodus 2:17

  But the shepherds came and drove them away. Then Moses stood up and saved them and watered their flock.

• Exodus 2:19

  They said, “An Egyptian man rescued us from the hand of the shepherds, and he even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

• Exodus 32:20

  And he took the calf that they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it until it was fine dust, and scattered it on the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.

• Numbers 5:24

  And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that brings a curse, and the water that brings a curse shall enter into her to become bitter.

• Numbers 5:26

  And the priest shall take a handful from the grain offering, its memorial portion, and burn it on the altar, and afterward he shall make the woman drink the water.

• Numbers 5:27

  When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be that if she has made herself unclean and been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings a curse shall enter into her to become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh sag, and the woman shall become an imprecation among her people.

• Numbers 20:8

  “Take the staff, and assemble the community, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the crag before their eyes so that it will give its water. And you shall bring out water for them from the crag and give drink to the community and to their livestock.”

• Deuteronomy 11:10

  For the land into which you are going to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you came out, where you would sow your seed and water it with your foot, like a garden of vegetables.

• Judges 4:19

  He said to her, “Give me to drink, please, a little water, for I am thirsty.” She opened the skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him.

• 1 Samuel 30:11

  They found an Egyptian man in the field and brought him to David; they gave him bread, and he ate, and they gave him water to drink.

• 2 Samuel 23:15

  David longed and said, “Who will give me a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate?”

• 1 Chronicles 11:17

  David longed and said, “Who will give me a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate?”

• 2 Chronicles 28:15

  Then the men who had been designated by name rose up and took charge of the captives; and all the naked among them they clothed from the spoil; they clothed them, gave them sandals, gave them food and drink, anointed them, led them on donkeys, all who stumbled, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, beside their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria.

• Esther 1:7

  And drink was given in vessels of gold, and vessels different from other vessels, and royal wine in abundance, according to the hand of the king.

• Job 21:24

  his vessels are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is moist.

• Job 22:7

  You did not give the weary water to drink, and from the hungry you withheld bread.

• Psalms 36:8

  They drink their fill of the fatness of your house, and from the stream of your delights you give them drink.

• Psalms 60:3

  You have made your people see hard things; you have given us to drink wine of staggering.

• Psalms 69:21

  And they put in my food poison, and for my thirst they gave me to drink sour wine.

• Psalms 78:15

  He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as from the deeps, abundantly.

• Psalms 80:5

  You have fed them the bread of tears, and given them to drink tears in great measure.

And 21 more times.