shalach · send, stretch out

What it means

shalach (שָׁלַח) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “send, stretch out”.

Send; stretch out (the hand); let go, send away, set free.

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 send someone or something.
2. Literally "send the hand": move the arm toward something to take or strike it.
3. To set free, release.
4. To send away, or divorce one's wife.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Send. BDB: to send away, send for, send out. From there, to stretch out the hand, let loose, let go, send off.

• To send someone on an errand Isaiah 6:8
• To let an animal loose Genesis 8:8
• To stretch out the hand Genesis 22:10Exodus 3:20
• To let go, to set free Exodus 5:1
• To send away or drive out Genesis 3:23Deuteronomy 24:1

Historical and cultural background

Deuteronomy 24:1 regulates divorce with this verb: the husband writes a document of divorce, puts it in the woman's hand and sends her away.

How we translate it

“Sent” 460 times, “send” 158, “let go” 41, “stretch out” 25, “stretched out” 16. English needs different verbs according to the object: with the hand, “stretch out”; with a people held back, “let go” (“Let my people go”, Exodus 5:1); with a wife, “send away”.

How it is translated

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

• sent ×460
• send ×158
• let go ×41
• stretch out ×25
• sending ×17
• stretched out ×16
• am sending ×15
• let him go ×10
• reached out ×8
• sends ×8
• others ×89

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×66
• Exodus×74
• Leviticus×10
• Numbers×29
• Deuteronomy×22
• Joshua×23
• Judges×38
• 1 Samuel×67
• 2 Samuel×62
• 1 Kings×48
• 2 Kings×71
• 1 Chronicles×17
• 2 Chronicles×37
• Ezra×1
• Nehemiah×13
• Esther×15
• Job×20
• Psalms×33
• Proverbs×12
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Song of Songs×1
• Isaiah×33
• Jeremiah×89
• Lamentations×1
• Ezekiel×28
• Daniel×2
• Hosea×2
• Joel×3
• Amos×9
• Obadiah×3
• Micah×1
• Haggai×1
• Zechariah×10
• Malachi×5

• Genesis 3:22

  And YHWH Elohim said, “Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, so that he does not reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever—”

• Genesis 3:23

  And YHWH Elohim sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.

• Genesis 8:7

  and he sent out the raven, and it went going out and returning until the waters had dried up from the earth.

• Genesis 8:8

  And he sent out the dove from him to see whether the waters had decreased from the face of the ground.

• Genesis 8:9

  But the dove did not find a resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were on the face of all the earth. And he reached out his hand and took her and brought her to himself into the ark.

• Genesis 8:10

  And he waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark.

• Genesis 8:12

  And he waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove, and she did not return to him again.

• Genesis 12:20

  Pharaoh gave orders to men concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.

• Genesis 18:16

  Then the men got up from there and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them on their way.

• Genesis 19:10

  But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

• 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 19:29

  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 20:2

  Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” So Abimelech king of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

• Genesis 21:14

  Abraham rose early in the morning, took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and also the child, and sent her away. She went and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

• Genesis 22:10

  Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

• Genesis 22:12

  He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the boy, and do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear Elohim, since you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.”

• Genesis 24:7

  YHWH, the Elohim of the heavens, who took me from the house of my father and from the land of my kindred, and who spoke to me and who swore to me, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.

• Genesis 24:40

  He said to me, ‘YHWH, before whom I have walked, will send his angel with you and make successful your journey, and you will take a wife for my son from my family and from the house of my father.

• Genesis 24:54

  He and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night. When they rose in the morning, he said, “Send me away to my lord.”

• Genesis 24:56

  He said to them, “Do not delay me, since YHWH has made successful my journey. Send me away so that I may go to my lord.”

• Genesis 24:59

  So they sent away Rebekah their sister and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant and his men.

• Genesis 25:6

  But to the sons of the concubines that were Abraham’s, Abraham gave gifts, and he sent them away from Isaac his son, while he was still alive, eastward, to the land of the east.

• Genesis 26:27

  Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, when you hated me and sent me away from you?”

• Genesis 26:29

  that you will not do us harm, just as we have not touched you and just as we have done to you only good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of YHWH.’”

• Genesis 26:31

  They rose early in the morning and swore one to another; and Isaac sent them away, and they went from him in peace.

• Genesis 27:42

  The words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah, and she sent and called Jacob her younger son and said to him, “Look, Esau your brother is consoling himself about you by planning to kill you.

• Genesis 27:45

  until your brother’s anger turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

• Genesis 28:5

  So Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Paddan-aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

• Genesis 28:6

  Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take for himself a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he commanded him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”

• Genesis 30:25

  When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, so that I may go to my own place and to my land.

• Genesis 31:4

  So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock.

• Genesis 31:27

  Why did you secretly flee, deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre.

• Genesis 31:42

  Had not the Elohim of my father, the Elohim of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed. Elohim has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and he rebuked you last night.”

• Genesis 32:3

  Then Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to Esau his brother, to the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

• Genesis 32:5

  I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male slaves, and slave women; and I have sent to tell my lord, to find favor in your eyes.’”

• Genesis 32:18

  then you shall say, ‘They are your servant’s, Jacob’s. It is a gift sent to my lord, to Esau; and look, he too is behind us.’”

• Genesis 32:26

  Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn has come up.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

• Genesis 37:13

  Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, and I will send you to them.” He said to him, “Here I am.”

• Genesis 37:14

  He said to him, “Go, please, see the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock, and bring back word to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.

• Genesis 37:22

  Reuben said to them, “Do not shed blood; throw him into this cistern that is in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him,” so that he might deliver him from their hands to bring him back to his father.

And 807 more times.