shevi · captive, captivity

What it means

shevi (שְׁבִי) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “captive, captivity”.

Captive, prisoner; captivity.

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. Prisoners of war.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Captivity and captives: the persons seized in war and the state of one who has been carried off as a prisoner. It comes from the verb שָׁבָה, ‘take captive’ (H7617).

• Taking captives in war Numbers 21:1Deuteronomy 21:10Numbers 31:12
• “You took captives”: the victor Judges 5:12Psalms 68:18
• Going into captivity: the announced punishment Deuteronomy 28:41Jeremiah 15:2
• Those who returned from the captivity Ezra 3:8Nehemiah 1:2Jeremiah 30:10
• The firstborn “of the captive” in Egypt Exodus 12:29

Historical and cultural background

Deuteronomy 21:10-14 regulates what an Israelite had to do if he wanted to take a woman captured in war as his wife.

How we translate it

“Captivity” 32 times and “captives” 12. “Captives” is used in the narratives of war (Numbers 31) and “captivity” for the state of those carried off, distinct from גּוֹלָה, rendered ‘exiles’ (“from the captivity of the exiles”, Ezra 2:1). In Amos 4:10, of horses, “the capture”.

How it is translated

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

• captivity ×32
• captives ×12
• captive ×3
• capture ×1

Related words

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

Where it appears

• Exodus×1
• Numbers×5
• Deuteronomy×2
• Judges×1
• 2 Chronicles×2
• Ezra×4
• Nehemiah×4
• Psalms×2
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×10
• Lamentations×2
• Ezekiel×4
• Daniel×2
• Amos×2
• Nahum×1
• Habakkuk×1

• Exodus 12:29

  At midnight YHWH struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of the livestock.

• Numbers 21:1

  When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.

• Numbers 21:29

  Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, people of Chemosh! He has given his sons as fugitives, and his daughters into captivity, to the king of the Amorites, Sihon.

• 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.

• Numbers 31:19

  And you, camp outside the camp seven days; everyone who has killed a person and everyone who has touched the slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day, you and your captives.

• Numbers 31:26

  “Take the count of the plunder of the captives, of people and of animals, you and Eleazar the priest and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the community.

• Deuteronomy 21:10

  When you go out to war against your enemies, and YHWH your Elohim gives them into your hand, and you take captives from them,

• Deuteronomy 28:41

  Sons and daughters you will father, but they will not be yours, for they will go into captivity.

• Judges 5:12

  Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives, son of Abinoam.

• 2 Chronicles 28:17

  Again the Edomites had come and struck Judah and carried away captives.

• 2 Chronicles 29:9

  And look, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this.

• Ezra 2:1

  And these are the sons of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried into exile to Babylon, and they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city,

• Ezra 3:8

  And in the second year of their coming to the house of Elohim at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers, the priests and the Levites, and all who had come from the captivity to Jerusalem, began; and they appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to direct the work of the house of YHWH.

• Ezra 8:35

  Those who had come from the captivity, the sons of the exile, offered burnt offerings to the Elohim of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, twelve male goats as a sin offering; all was a burnt offering to YHWH.

• Ezra 9:7

  From the days of our fathers we have been in great guilt until this day; and for our iniquities we have been given, our kings, and our priests, into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to plunder, and to shame of face, as at this day.

• Nehemiah 1:2

  that Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and some men from Judah; and I asked them about the Jews, the escapees who had been left from the captivity, and about Jerusalem.

• Nehemiah 1:3

  And they said to me, “Those who remain, who have been left from the captivity there in the province, are in great trouble and in reproach; and the wall of Jerusalem is full of breaches, and its gates have been set on fire.”

• Nehemiah 7:6

  These are the sons of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried into exile, and they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city,

• Nehemiah 8:17

  And all the assembly, those who had returned from the captivity, made booths and lived in the booths; for the sons of Israel had not done so from the days of Jeshua son of Nun until that day. And there was very great rejoicing.

• Psalms 68:18

  You went up on high; you took captives; you took gifts among human beings, and even the rebellious, for Yah Elohim to dwell there.

• Psalms 78:61

  And he gave to captivity his strength, and his beauty into the hand of the adversary.

• Isaiah 20:4

  so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered: the nakedness of Egypt.

• Isaiah 46:2

  They stoop, they bend together; they could not rescue the load, and they themselves have gone into captivity.

• Isaiah 49:24

  Can the prey be taken from the mighty one, or the captives of the righteous be rescued?

• Isaiah 49:25

  For thus says YHWH: “Even the captives of the mighty one will be taken, and the prey of the tyrant will be rescued; and with the one who contends with you I will contend, and your children I will save.

• Isaiah 52:2

  Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, sit, Jerusalem; free yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion.

• Jeremiah 15:2

  And it will be, when they say to you, ‘Where shall we go out?’ that you will say to them: Thus says YHWH: ‘Those who are for death, to death; and those who are for the sword, to the sword; and those who are for famine, to famine; and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’

• Jeremiah 20:6

  And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and to Babylon you will come, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

• Jeremiah 22:22

  All your shepherds the wind will shepherd, and your lovers will go into captivity; for then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your evil.

• Jeremiah 30:10

  And you, do not fear, my servant Jacob, declares YHWH, and do not be dismayed, Israel; for look, I am saving you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity; and Jacob will return and be quiet and at ease, and there will be no one to make him afraid.

• Jeremiah 30:16

  Therefore all who devour you will be devoured, and all your adversaries, all of them, will go into captivity; and those who despoil you will become spoil, and all who plunder you I will give to plunder.

• Jeremiah 43:11

  And he will come and strike the land of Egypt: those who are for death, to death; and those for captivity, to captivity; and those for the sword, to the sword.

• Jeremiah 46:27

  But you, do not fear, my servant Jacob, and do not be dismayed, Israel; for look, I am saving you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity; and Jacob will return, and be quiet and at ease, and there will be no one to make him afraid.

• Jeremiah 48:46

  Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh has perished, for your sons have been taken into captivity, and your daughters into captivity.

• Lamentations 1:5

  Her adversaries have become the head; her enemies are at ease, because YHWH has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her little children have gone into captivity before the adversary.

• Lamentations 1:18

  “Righteous is he, YHWH, for against his mouth I have rebelled; hear, please, all the peoples, and see my pain; my virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

• Ezekiel 12:11

  Say, ‘I am your wonder; as I have done, so it will be done to them; into exile, into captivity they will go.’

• Ezekiel 16:53

  And I will bring back their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and the captivity of your captives in their midst,

• Ezekiel 30:17

  The young men of On and of Pi-beseth by the sword will fall, and they will go into captivity.

• Ezekiel 30:18

  And in Tahpanhes the day will grow dark, when I break there the bars of Egypt, and the pride of her strength ceases in her; as for her, a cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity.

And 8 more times.