שִׁיר
shir · sing
Hebrew word · Strong’s number H7891 · appears 87 times in the Bible
What is the Strong number?
Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.What it means
shir (שִׁיר) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “sing”.
Singer.
How to say it
shir
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
- To give voice to a melody, to praise YHWH or to celebrate.
- Levites in charge of leading the singing in the house of YHWH, with instruments.
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)
Word study
To sing; as a participle, a singer, male or female. It is of the same root as שִׁיר, “song” (H7892).
- Singing to YHWH: “I will sing to YHWH” Exodus 15:1Judges 5:3Psalms 13:6
- “Sing to YHWH a new song” Psalms 96:1Exodus 15:21
- The singers of the temple 1 Chronicles 15:16Ezra 2:41
- Singing men and singing women of the court 2 Samuel 19:35
- “How shall we sing…?” Psalms 137:4
Historical and cultural background
Chronicles and Ezra organize the singers of the temple by Levite families, the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun (1 Chronicles 15:16; 25:1-6; Ezra 2:41).
How we translate it
“Singers” 41 times (the participle), “sing” 34, “sang” 5; “singing men” and “singing women” once each (2 Samuel 19:35). כְּלֵי שִׁיר is “instruments of song” (1 Chronicles 15:16).
How it is translated
The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.
- singers ×41
- Sing ×34
- sang ×5
- have sung ×1
- one who sings ×1
- singer ×1
- singing men ×1
- singing women ×1
- was sounding ×1
- will be sung ×1
Related words
Words that come from it
Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.
Where it appears
- Exodus×3
- Numbers×1
- Judges×2
- 1 Samuel×1
- 2 Samuel×2
- 1 Kings×1
- 1 Chronicles×8
- 2 Chronicles×9
- Ezra×6
- Nehemiah×17
- Job×1
- Psalms×27
- Proverbs×1
- Ecclesiastes×2
- Isaiah×3
- Jeremiah×1
- Ezekiel×1
- Zephaniah×1
- Exodus 15:1
Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to YHWH, and they said: “I will sing to YHWH, for he is highly exalted; horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.
- Exodus 15:21
And Miriam answered them, “Sing to YHWH, for he is highly exalted; horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.”
- Numbers 21:17
Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well! Sing to it!
- Judges 5:1
Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang on that day, saying:
- Judges 5:3
Hear, kings; give ear, dignitaries. I, I will sing to YHWH; I will sing psalms to YHWH, the Elohim of Israel.
- 1 Samuel 18:6
And it came about, as they came, when David returned from striking the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel to sing, with dances, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with three-stringed instruments.
- 2 Samuel 19:35
I am eighty years old today. Can I distinguish between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be still a burden to my lord the king?
- 1 Kings 10:12
And the king made of the almug wood railings for the house of YHWH and for the house of the king, and lyres and harps for the singers; no such almug wood has come or been seen to this day.
- 1 Chronicles 6:33
And these are those who stood there, with their sons. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel,
- 1 Chronicles 9:33
And these were the singers, heads of fathers’ houses of the Levites, in the chambers, free from other service, for day and night it was on them to be in the work.
- 1 Chronicles 15:16
David told the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers, the singers, with instruments of song, harps and lyres and cymbals, making themselves heard, lifting up the voice with joy.
- 1 Chronicles 15:19
And the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, with cymbals of bronze, to make themselves heard;
- 1 Chronicles 15:27
David was wrapped in a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah, the chief of the carrying of the singers; and on David was a linen ephod.
- 1 Chronicles 16:9
Sing to him, sing psalms to him; speak of all his wonders.
- 1 Chronicles 16:23
Sing to YHWH, all the earth; bring the news from day to day of his salvation.
- 2 Chronicles 5:12
and the Levites, the singers, all of them, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, were standing east of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding the trumpets;
- 2 Chronicles 5:13
and it happened, as one, that the trumpeters and the singers were to make one voice heard to praise and to give thanks to YHWH; and when they raised their voice with the trumpets and with cymbals and with instruments of song, and praised YHWH, “For he is good, for his loyal love is forever,” then the house was filled with a cloud, the house of YHWH,
- 2 Chronicles 9:11
The king made of the algum wood causeways for the house of YHWH and for the house of the king, and lyres and harps for the singers; none like them had been seen before in the land of Judah.
- 2 Chronicles 20:21
He took counsel with the people and appointed singers to YHWH and men praising in the splendor of holiness, as they went out before the equipped troops, and saying, “Give thanks to YHWH, for his loyal love is forever.”
- 2 Chronicles 23:13
She looked, and there was the king standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the commanders and the trumpets beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing the trumpets, and the singers with instruments of song leading the praise. Athaliah tore her clothes and said, “Conspiracy! Conspiracy!”
- 2 Chronicles 29:28
All the assembly was bowing down, and the song was sounding, and the trumpets were blowing; all this until the burnt offering was finished.
- 2 Chronicles 35:15
The singers, the sons of Asaph, were at their post, according to the commandment of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the seer of the king; and the gatekeepers were at each gate. There was no need for them to turn away from their service, for their brothers the Levites prepared for them.
- 2 Chronicles 35:25
Jeremiah chanted a dirge for Josiah; and all the male singers and the female singers have spoken of Josiah in their dirges to this day, and they made them a statute for Israel; and they are written in the Dirges.
- Ezra 2:41
The singers: the sons of Asaph, one hundred twenty-eight.
- Ezra 2:65
besides their male slaves and their female slaves, these were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven; and they had two hundred male singers and female singers.
- Ezra 2:70
So the priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the Nethinim lived in their cities, and all Israel in their cities.
- Ezra 7:7
And there went up some of the sons of Israel and of the priests and the Levites and the singers and the gatekeepers and the Nethinim to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.
- Ezra 10:24
And of the singers: Eliashib. And of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem, and Uri.
- Nehemiah 7:1
It happened that when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites were appointed.
- Nehemiah 7:44
The singers: the sons of Asaph, one hundred forty-eight.
- Nehemiah 7:67
besides their male slaves and their female slaves, these were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven; and they had two hundred forty-five male singers and female singers.
- Nehemiah 7:73
So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the Nethinim, and all Israel lived in their cities. And the seventh month came, and the sons of Israel were in their cities.
- Nehemiah 10:28
And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethinim, and all who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the law of Elohim, their wives, their sons and their daughters, all who knew how to understand,
- Nehemiah 10:39
For to the chambers the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine, and the oil; and there are the utensils of the sanctuary, and the priests who minister, and the gatekeepers and the singers. And we will not abandon the house of our Elohim.
- Nehemiah 11:22
And the one appointed of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi son of Bani, son of Hashabiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Mica, of the sons of Asaph, the singers, over the work of the house of Elohim.
- Nehemiah 11:23
For there was a commandment of the king concerning them, and a firm agreement for the singers, what was due each day on its day.
- Nehemiah 12:28
And the sons of the singers gathered both from the plain around Jerusalem and from the villages of the Netophathite,
- Nehemiah 12:29
and from Beth-gilgal and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth; for the singers had built themselves villages around Jerusalem.
- Nehemiah 12:42
and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the singers made themselves heard, with Izrahiah the one appointed.
- Nehemiah 12:45
And they kept the charge of their Elohim and the charge of the purification, and the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the commandment of David and of Solomon his son.
And 47 more times.