shavar · break

What it means

shavar (שָׁבַר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “break”.

Shatter; break down.

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 break something to pieces.
2. To break pride; "a broken heart".

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To break, to shatter, to break in pieces; in the passive, to be broken. BDB: to burst, literally or figuratively. From this verb comes שֶׁבֶר, a breaking (H7667).

• Moses breaks the tablets Exodus 32:19
• Hezekiah breaks the bronze serpent in pieces 2 Kings 18:4
• “I will break the pride of your power” Leviticus 26:19
• The broken in heart Psalms 34:18Psalms 51:17Isaiah 61:1
• “A broken reed he will not break” Isaiah 42:3

How we translate it

“Broken” 68 times, “break” 21, “broke” 21, “I will break” 12, “breaks” 6, “shattered” 3, “smash” 3… English “break” serves both for objects and for a person's heart or spirit (“the broken in heart”, Psalm 34:18; “the brokenhearted”, Isaiah 61:1).

How it is translated

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

• broken ×68
• break ×21
• broke ×21
• I will break ×12
• breaks ×6
• shattered ×3
• smash ×3
• am breaking ×2
• injured ×2
• mauled ×2
• others ×8

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Exodus×9
• Leviticus×7
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×4
• Judges×1
• 1 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×4
• 2 Kings×4
• 2 Chronicles×6
• Job×5
• Psalms×21
• Proverbs×3
• Ecclesiastes×1
• Isaiah×14
• Jeremiah×28
• Lamentations×3
• Ezekiel×21
• Daniel×8
• Hosea×2
• Amos×1
• Jonah×1
• Nahum×1
• Zechariah×1

• Genesis 19:9

  But they said, “Step aside!” And they said, “This one came to reside as an alien, and he keeps acting as judge! Now we will do worse to you than to them.” And they pressed hard against the man, against Lot, and came near to break the door.

• Exodus 9:25

  The hail struck, throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, from people to animals; and the hail struck every plant of the field and shattered every tree of the field.

• Exodus 12:46

  In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not take any of the meat out of the house outside, and you shall not break a bone of it.

• Exodus 22:10

  When a man gives his neighbor a donkey or an ox or a lamb or any animal to keep, and it dies or is injured or is carried off, with no one seeing,

• Exodus 22:14

  When a man borrows an animal from his neighbor and it is injured or dies, its owner not being with it, he shall surely repay.

• Exodus 23:24

  You shall not bow down to their gods or serve them, or do according to their works, but you shall utterly tear them down and smash their standing stones.

• Exodus 32:19

  And it happened, as soon as he came near to the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, that Moses’ anger burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.

• Exodus 34:1

  And YHWH said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.

• Exodus 34:13

  But their altars you shall tear down, and their standing stones you shall break, and their Asherahs you shall cut down.

• Leviticus 6:28

  And the earthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken; and if it is boiled in a bronze vessel, it shall be scoured and rinsed in water.

• Leviticus 11:33

  And any earthen vessel into which any of them falls, whatever is in it will be unclean, and it you shall break.

• Leviticus 15:12

  And a vessel of clay that the man with the discharge touches shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water.

• Leviticus 22:22

  Blind, or broken, or maimed, or with warts, or with an itch, or with scabs: you shall not present these to YHWH, and you shall not give from them a fire offering on the altar to YHWH.

• Leviticus 26:13

  I am YHWH your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.

• Leviticus 26:19

  And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your land like bronze.

• Leviticus 26:26

  When I break for you the staff of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven and give back your bread by weight, and you will eat and not be satisfied.

• Numbers 9:12

  They shall not leave any of it until morning, and they shall not break a bone of it; according to all the statute of the Passover they shall keep it.

• Deuteronomy 7:5

  But thus you shall do to them: their altars you shall tear down, their standing stones you shall break, their Asherahs you shall cut down, and their carved images you shall burn with fire.

• Deuteronomy 9:17

  So I seized the two tablets and threw them from my two hands and broke them before your eyes.

• Deuteronomy 10:2

  And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.”

• Deuteronomy 12:3

  You shall tear down their altars, smash their standing stones, burn their Asherahs with fire, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their name from that place.

• Judges 7:20

  The three companies blew the horns and broke the jars; they held in their left hand the torches, and in their right hand the horns to blow, and they called out, “A sword for YHWH and for Gideon!”

• 1 Samuel 4:18

  And it happened, when he mentioned the ark of Elohim, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.

• 1 Kings 13:26

  When the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of Elohim who rebelled against the command of YHWH; so YHWH has given him to the lion, and it has mauled him and put him to death, according to the word of YHWH that he spoke to him.”

• 1 Kings 13:28

  He went and found his corpse thrown on the way, and the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had not eaten the corpse and had not mauled the donkey.

• 1 Kings 19:11

  He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before YHWH.” And there, YHWH was passing by, and a great and strong wind was tearing mountains and breaking rocks before YHWH; YHWH was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake; YHWH was not in the earthquake.

• 1 Kings 22:48

  Jehoshaphat made ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold; but they did not go, for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber.

• 2 Kings 11:18

  All the people of the land went to the house of Baal and tore it down; its altars and its images they smashed thoroughly, and Mattan, the priest of Baal, they killed before the altars. And the priest set guards over the house of YHWH.

• 2 Kings 18:4

  He removed the high places, broke the standing stones, and cut down the Asherah; and he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel had been burning incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan.

• 2 Kings 23:14

  He broke the standing stones, cut down the Asherahs, and filled their places with human bones.

• 2 Kings 25:13

  The pillars of bronze that were in the house of YHWH, and the stands, and the bronze Sea that was in the house of YHWH, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and they carried their bronze to Babylon.

• 2 Chronicles 14:3

  He removed the foreign altars and the high places, broke the standing stones, and cut down the Asherahs.

• 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 20:37

  Eliezer son of Dodavahu from Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you allied yourself with Ahaziah, YHWH has made a breach in your works.” And the ships were broken, and they were not able to go to Tarshish.

• 2 Chronicles 23:17

  All the people went to the house of Baal and tore it down; its altars and its images they smashed, and Mattan, the priest of Baal, they killed before the altars.

• 2 Chronicles 31:1

  When all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke the standing stones, cut down the Asherahs, and tore down the high places and the altars from all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had finished. Then all the sons of Israel returned, each to his possession, to their cities.

• 2 Chronicles 34:4

  They tore down before him the altars of the Baals, and the incense altars that were high above them he cut down; and the Asherahs, the carved images, and the molten images he broke and ground to dust, and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

• Job 24:20

  The womb forgets him; the worms savor him; he is no longer remembered, and injustice is broken like a tree.

• Job 29:17

  And I broke the fangs of the unjust, and from his teeth I threw down the prey.

• Job 31:22

  let my shoulder fall from its blade, and my arm be broken from its reed.

And 108 more times.