teshuva · return, turn; answer

What it means

teshuva (תְּשׁוּבָה) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “return, turn; answer”.

Return, turn; also "answer," and in the calendar, "the turn of the year."

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. Coming back; "when the year comes round": the next year.
2. What someone answers in order to defend himself or reply to another.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

How it is translated

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

• turn ×5
• answers ×2
• return ×1

Where it appears

• 1 Samuel×1
• 2 Samuel×1
• 1 Kings×2
• 1 Chronicles×1
• 2 Chronicles×1
• Job×2

• 1 Samuel 7:17

  And his return was to Ramah, for there was his house, and there he judged Israel; and he built there an altar to YHWH.

• 2 Samuel 11:1

  And it happened, at the turn of the year, at the time when the kings go out, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.

• 1 Kings 20:22

  The prophet came near to the king of Israel and said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself, and know and see what you must do, for at the turn of the year the king of Aram will come up against you.”

• 1 Kings 20:26

  And it happened, at the turn of the year, that Ben-hadad counted Aram and went up to Aphek for war against Israel.

• 1 Chronicles 20:1

  And it happened, at the turn of the year, at the time when the kings go out, that Joab led out the force of the army and destroyed the land of the sons of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. And Joab struck Rabbah and tore it down.

• 2 Chronicles 36:10

  At the turn of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and had him brought to Babylon, with the precious utensils of the house of YHWH, and made king over Judah and Jerusalem Zedekiah his brother.

• Job 21:34

  How, then, do you comfort me in vain, and of your answers there remains unfaithfulness?”

• Job 34:36

  Would that Job were tested to the end for his answers like men of wickedness!