shemama · desolation

What it means

shemama (שְׁמָמָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “desolation”.

A land left empty and uncultivated; also horror.

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. Empty, abandoned land.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Desolation: a land or city that has been left empty, without inhabitants and without cultivation. It comes from שָׁמֵם (‘be desolate’, H8074).

• The land that is left desolate Exodus 23:29Leviticus 26:33Isaiah 6:11
• Making the land a desolation: the judgment Ezekiel 33:28Jeremiah 12:11Malachi 1:3
• “Jerusalem a desolation” Isaiah 64:10Daniel 9:18
• Desolation of the nations Joel 3:19Zephaniah 2:13
• The desolate land will be tilled Ezekiel 36:34

Historical and cultural background

YHWH says that he will not drive out the peoples of Canaan in one year, “lest the land become desolate and the animals of the field multiply against you” (Exodus 23:29).

How we translate it

“Desolation” 48 times and “desolations” 4; “desolate” when it works as an adjective. This edition keeps “desolation” for שְׁמָמָה and distinguishes it from שַׁמָּה (‘horror’); when they go together it reads “a desolation and a horror” (Ezekiel 33:28).

How it is translated

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

• desolation ×48
• desolate ×4
• desolations ×4
• devastation ×1
• devastations ×1

Where it appears

• Exodus×1
• Leviticus×1
• Joshua×1
• Isaiah×6
• Jeremiah×15
• Ezekiel×22
• Daniel×1
• Joel×4
• Micah×2
• Zephaniah×4
• Malachi×1

• Exodus 23:29

  I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the animals of the field multiply against you.

• Leviticus 26:33

  And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you; and your land will be a desolation, and your cities will be a ruin.

• Joshua 8:28

  So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap of ruins forever, a desolation, to this day.

• Isaiah 1:7

  Your land is a desolation, your cities burned with fire; your ground, before your eyes strangers devour it, and it is a desolation like the overthrow by strangers.

• Isaiah 6:11

  And I said, “How long, Adonai?” And he said, “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without a human being, and the ground lies waste, a desolation;

• Isaiah 17:9

  On that day the cities of his stronghold will be like the abandoned places of the woodland and of the hilltop which they abandoned from before the sons of Israel; and there will be desolation.

• Isaiah 62:4

  You will no longer be called “Forsaken,” and your land will no longer be called “Desolation”; but you will be called “My Delight Is in Her,” and your land “Married”; for YHWH delights in you, and your land will be married.

• Isaiah 64:10

  Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

• Jeremiah 4:27

  For thus says YHWH: “The whole land will be a desolation, yet a full end I will not make.

• Jeremiah 6:8

  Be corrected, Jerusalem, or my soul will be torn away from you, or I will make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.”

• Jeremiah 9:11

  And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a lair of jackals, and the cities of Judah I will make a desolation, without inhabitant.”

• Jeremiah 10:22

  The sound of a report! Look, it comes, and a great commotion from the land of the north, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a lair of jackals.

• Jeremiah 12:10

  Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have trampled my portion; they have made the portion of my delight a wilderness of desolation.

• Jeremiah 12:11

  They have made it a desolation; it mourns before me, desolate; desolate is all the land, for there is no man who takes it to heart.

• Jeremiah 25:12

  And it will be, when seventy years are completed, I will visit upon the king of Babylon and upon that nation, declares YHWH, their iniquity, and upon the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it eternal desolations.

• Jeremiah 32:43

  And the field will be bought in this land of which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without human being or livestock; it has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’

• Jeremiah 34:22

  Look, I am giving the command, declares YHWH, and I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against it and capture it and burn it with fire; and the cities of Judah I will make a desolation, without inhabitant.”

• Jeremiah 44:6

  So my fury and my anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they became a ruin, a desolation, as it is this day.

• Jeremiah 49:2

  Therefore, look, days are coming, declares YHWH, when I will make heard against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon the shout of war; and it will become a mound of desolation, and her daughters will be burned with fire; and Israel will possess those who possessed him, says YHWH.

• Jeremiah 49:33

  And Hazor will become a lair of jackals, a desolation forever; no one will dwell there, nor will a son of man reside in it.

• Jeremiah 50:13

  Because of the wrath of YHWH she will not be inhabited, but she will become a desolation, all of her; everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and will hiss over all her wounds.

• Jeremiah 51:26

  And they will not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; for you will be eternal desolations, declares YHWH.

• Jeremiah 51:62

  and say, ‘YHWH, you have spoken concerning this place to cut it off, so that there will be no inhabitant in it, from human being to livestock, for it will be eternal desolations.’

• Ezekiel 6:14

  And I will stretch out my hand against them, and make the land a desolation and a horror more than the wilderness of Diblah, in all their dwelling places; and they will know that I am YHWH.”

• Ezekiel 7:27

  The king will mourn, and the chief will be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land will be terrified; according to their way I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them; and they will know that I am YHWH.”

• Ezekiel 12:20

  And the inhabited cities will be laid waste, and the land will be a desolation; and you will know that I am YHWH.’”

• Ezekiel 14:15

  If I made a ferocious animal pass through the land, and it left it childless, and it became a desolation without anyone passing through because of the animal,

• Ezekiel 14:16

  even if these three men were in its midst, as I live, declares Adonai YHWH, neither sons nor daughters would they deliver; they alone would be delivered, and the land would be a desolation.

• Ezekiel 15:8

  And I will make the land a desolation because they have committed a breach of faith, declares Adonai YHWH.”

• Ezekiel 23:33

  With drunkenness and sorrow you will be filled, a cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria.

• Ezekiel 29:9

  And the land of Egypt will become a desolation and a ruin, and they will know that I am YHWH; because he said, “The Nile is mine, and I made it,”

• Ezekiel 29:10

  therefore look, I am against you and against your channels, and I will make the land of Egypt into ruins of dryness, a desolation, from Migdol to Syene and as far as the border of Cush.

• Ezekiel 29:12

  And I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the midst of desolated lands, and her cities, in the midst of ruined cities, will be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse them through the lands.

• Ezekiel 32:15

  When I make the land of Egypt a desolation and the land is desolated of its fullness, when I strike all who live in it, they will know that I am YHWH.

• Ezekiel 33:28

  And I will make the land a desolation and a horror, and the pride of her strength will cease, and the mountains of Israel will be desolate, with no one passing through.

• Ezekiel 33:29

  And they will know that I am YHWH, when I make the land a desolation and a horror because of all their abominations that they have done.’

• Ezekiel 35:3

  and say to it, ‘Thus says Adonai YHWH: Look, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and a horror.

• Ezekiel 35:4

  Your cities I will make a ruin, and you will become a desolation, and you will know that I am YHWH.

• Ezekiel 35:7

  And I will make Mount Seir a devastation and a desolation, and I will cut off from it the one who goes and the one who returns.

• Ezekiel 35:9

  Eternal devastations I will make you, and your cities will not be inhabited; and you will know that I am YHWH.

And 18 more times.