shalal · spoil, plunder

What it means

shalal (שָׁלָל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “spoil, plunder”.

Spoil: what is taken from a defeated enemy.

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. What is taken from a defeated enemy.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Spoil, plunder: what is taken from a defeated enemy or a sacked city (livestock, goods, clothing). It comes from the verb שָׁלַל (plunder, despoil). It is part of the symbolic name Maher-shalal-hash-baz in Isaiah 8.

• The spoil of a captured city Deuteronomy 20:14Joshua 8:27
• Rushing on the spoil against YHWH's order 1 Samuel 15:19
• Dividing the spoil Exodus 15:9Genesis 49:27Isaiah 53:12
• Figurative: gain, profit Proverbs 31:11Psalms 119:162
• Having one's life “as spoil”: saving only one's life Jeremiah 38:2

Historical and cultural background

The law of war in Deuteronomy 20:14 allowed taking “all its spoil” from the distant cities. David decreed that the share of the one who went down into battle would be the same as that of the one who stayed by the baggage (1 Samuel 30:24-25).

How we translate it

“Spoil” 65 times and “plunder” 8. “Spoil” is the common word in the war narratives and with the verb divide (Genesis 49:27; Isaiah 53:12); “plunder” in the enemy's boast (“I will divide the plunder”, Exodus 15:9) and in poetry, where it is the image of gain (“he will not lack plunder”, Proverbs 31:11).

How it is translated

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

• spoil ×65
• plunder ×8

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Exodus×1
• Numbers×2
• Deuteronomy×6
• Joshua×5
• Judges×6
• 1 Samuel×10
• 2 Samuel×3
• 2 Kings×1
• 1 Chronicles×2
• 2 Chronicles×8
• Esther×2
• Psalms×2
• Proverbs×3
• Isaiah×7
• Jeremiah×6
• Ezekiel×5
• Daniel×1
• Zechariah×2

• Genesis 49:27

  Benjamin is a wolf that tears; in the morning he devours the prey, and at evening he divides the spoil.”

• Exodus 15:9

  The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the plunder; my soul will have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

• Numbers 31:11

  They took all the spoil and all the plunder, of people and of animals,

• Numbers 31:12

  and they brought to Moses and to Eleazar the priest and to the community of the sons of Israel the captives, the plunder, and the spoil, to the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by the Jordan opposite Jericho.

• Deuteronomy 2:35

  Only the livestock we took as plunder for ourselves, and the spoil of the cities that we had captured.

• Deuteronomy 3:7

  But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as plunder for ourselves.

• Deuteronomy 13:16

  All its spoil you shall gather into the middle of its square, and you shall burn with fire the city and all its spoil as a whole offering to YHWH your Elohim, and it shall be a heap of ruins forever; it shall not be rebuilt again.

• Deuteronomy 20:14

  Only the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all its spoil, you may take as plunder for yourself; and you may eat the spoil of your enemies, which YHWH your Elohim has given you.

• Joshua 7:21

  I saw among the spoil one fine cloak from Shinar, and two hundred shekels of silver, and one tongue of gold whose weight was fifty shekels; and I coveted them and took them. And look, they are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver under it.”

• Joshua 8:2

  And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king; only its spoil and its livestock you may plunder for yourselves. Set for yourself an ambush against the city behind it.”

• Joshua 8:27

  Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel plundered for themselves, according to the word of YHWH that he had commanded Joshua.

• Joshua 11:14

  And all the spoil of these cities and the livestock the sons of Israel plundered for themselves; only all the human beings they struck with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them; they did not leave anything that breathed.

• Joshua 22:8

  and said to them, saying, “With great riches return to your tents, and with very much livestock, with silver, with gold, with bronze, with iron, and with very many garments. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”

• Judges 5:30

  ‘Are they not finding and dividing the spoil? A girl, two girls for each head of a man; spoil of dyed cloth for Sisera, spoil of dyed cloth embroidered; dyed cloth, two embroideries, for the necks of the spoil.’

• Judges 8:24

  Gideon said to them, “Let me ask of you a request: give me each man an earring from his spoil.” For they had earrings of gold, because they were Ishmaelites.

• Judges 8:25

  They said, “We will certainly give them.” They spread out the cloak, and each man threw there an earring from his spoil.

• 1 Samuel 14:30

  How much more if only the people had eaten freely today from the spoil of their enemies that they found! For now the blow among the Philistines has not been great.”

• 1 Samuel 14:32

  The people rushed on the spoil and took flocks and herds and calves, and slaughtered them on the ground, and the people ate with the blood.

• 1 Samuel 15:19

  Why then did you not listen to the voice of YHWH, but rushed on the spoil and did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH?”

• 1 Samuel 15:21

  But the people took from the spoil animals of the flock and herd, the firstfruits of what was devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to YHWH your Elohim in Gilgal.”

• 1 Samuel 30:16

  He brought him down, and look, they were spread out over the face of all the land, eating and drinking and celebrating because of all the great spoil that they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

• 1 Samuel 30:19

  Nothing of theirs was missing, from the small to the great, to sons and daughters, and from the spoil to all that they had taken for themselves; David brought back everything.

• 1 Samuel 30:20

  David took all the sheep and goats and the cattle; they drove before those livestock and said, “This is David’s spoil.”

• 1 Samuel 30:22

  Every evil and wicked man among the men who had gone with David answered and said, “Because they did not go with me, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have rescued, except to each man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and go.”

• 1 Samuel 30:26

  David came to Ziklag, and he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, to his companions, saying, “Here is for you a blessing from the spoil of the enemies of YHWH”:

• 2 Samuel 3:22

  And look, the servants of David and Joab came from the raid, and they brought much spoil with them; but Abner was not with David in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he had gone in peace.

• 2 Samuel 8:12

  from Aram, from Moab, from the sons of Ammon, from the Philistines, from Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah.

• 2 Samuel 12:30

  He took the crown of their king from his head (its weight was a talent of gold, and it had a precious stone), and it was on the head of David. And the spoil of the city he brought out, a very great amount.

• 2 Kings 3:23

  They said, “This is blood! The kings have surely fought among themselves and struck one another. Now to the plunder, Moab!”

• 1 Chronicles 20:2

  David took the crown of their king from his head, and he found it to weigh a talent of gold, and on it was a precious stone; and it was on the head of David. And the spoil of the city he brought out, a very great amount.

• 1 Chronicles 26:27

  From the wars and from the spoil they consecrated them to repair the house of YHWH.

• 2 Chronicles 14:13

  Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar; and of the Cushites there fell until they had no life left, for they were broken before YHWH and before his camp. And they carried away very much spoil.

• 2 Chronicles 15:11

  They sacrificed to YHWH on that day, from the spoil that they had brought, seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats.

• 2 Chronicles 20:25

  Jehoshaphat and his people came to plunder their spoil, and they found among them in abundance goods and corpses and precious objects, and they stripped them for themselves until they could carry no more; and they were three days plundering the spoil, for it was much.

• 2 Chronicles 24:23

  And it happened, at the turn of the year, that the force of Aram came up against him; they came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the officials of the people from among the people, and all their spoil they sent to the king of Damascus.

• 2 Chronicles 28:8

  The sons of Israel took captive from their brothers two hundred thousand, women, sons and daughters; and they also plundered much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.

• 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 3:13

  And letters were sent by the hand of the couriers to all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to make perish all the Jews, from the young man to the old man, little ones and women, on one day, the thirteenth of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their spoil.

• Esther 8:11

  in which the king granted the Jews who were in every city permission to assemble and to stand for their lives, to destroy, to kill, and to make perish any army of any people or province that might harass them, little ones and women, and to plunder their spoil,

• Psalms 68:12

  “Kings of armies flee, they flee, and she who stays at home divides the spoil.

And 33 more times.