To revolve , surround , or border ; used in various applications, literally and figuratively
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What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
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H5437 describes turning, circling, surrounding, going around, or causing something to turn, with physical routes and figurative changes both governed by context. The verb can trace movement around a place, repeated circular motion, encirclement, a change of direction, transfer of rule, or a heart turned toward a purpose, so physical geometry and providential change must remain distinct.
Reader summary
Full entry for סָבַב (H5437) · Open the biblical lexicon
H5437 describes turning, circling, surrounding, going around, or causing something to turn, with physical routes and figurative changes both governed by context. The verb can trace movement around a place, repeated circular motion, encirclement, a change of direction, transfer of rule, or a heart turned toward a purpose, so physical geometry and.
The BSB source-word alignment has 161 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (7), turned (7), surrounded (5), surround me (4), Turn (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:11. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (22), 1 Samuel (14), 2 Chronicles (13), Joshua (13).
This entry includes 3 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
H5437 describes turning, circling, surrounding, going around, or causing something to turn, with physical routes and figurative changes both governed by context. The verb can trace movement around a place, repeated circular motion, encirclement, a change of direction, transfer of rule, or a heart turned toward a purpose, so physical geometry and providential change must remain distinct.
In Exod. 13. 18, god leads Israel by a roundabout wilderness route toward the Red Sea rather than the nearer Philistine road after the exodus. In Eccl. 1. 6, the Teacher observes the wind turning south and north, circling repeatedly and returning again to its course. H5437 opens teaching on routes that feel indirect, patterns that circle repeatedly, and changes of direction that God can use without making every detour easy or every outcome immediately clear.
It corrects the belief that a roundabout path proves divine absence and also challenges fatalism that treats repeated harmful patterns as unchangeable circles. H5437 can trace a protective detour, a recurring course, or consequences that close in: God leads Israel around by the wilderness rather than the nearer road, the wind turns north and circles back on its course, and Hosea says Israels deeds surround them before God.
Indirect guidance, creaturely repetition, and moral consequence share turning imagery, but each passage supplies a different agent and purpose. For H5437, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. H5437 does not promise that every delay is Gods specific guidance, excuse avoidable wandering or abuse, teach that history is a meaningless cycle, or make a persons harmful circumstances proof of personal guilt.
H5437 appears across passages that develop providential routes, patient wandering, surrounding consequences, changed hearts, transferred rule, creaturely cycles, and purposeful direction. For H5437, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the Israelites left the land of Egypt arrayed for battle.
God leads Israel by a roundabout wilderness route toward the Red Sea rather than the nearer Philistine road after the exodus.
The wind blows southward, then turns northward; round and round it swirls, ever returning on its course.
The Teacher observes the wind turning south and north, circling repeatedly and returning again to its course.
But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.
Israel fails to remember that God sees their evil while their own deeds surround them before His face.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Movement around a center point, from literal encirclement to figurative transformation or redirect of circumstances.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 158 lexical occurrence verses.
סָבַב is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Imagery of sin encircling before God’s face.Hosea 7:1-7
H5437 can trace a protective detour, a recurring course, or consequences that close in: God leads Israel around by the wilderness rather than the nearer road, the wind turns north and circles back on its course, and Hosea says Israels deeds surround them before God. Indirect guidance, creaturely repetition, and moral consequence share turning imagery, but each passage supplies a different agent and purpose.
H5437 describes turning, circling, surrounding, going around, or causing something to turn, with physical routes and figurative changes both governed by context. The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Exod. 13. 18 shows that god leads Israel by a roundabout wilderness route toward the Red Sea rather than the nearer Philistine road after the exodus, while Eccl.
1. 6 Shows that the Teacher observes the wind turning south and north, circling repeatedly and returning again to its course. Hos. 7. 2 adds that israel fails to remember that God sees their evil while their own deeds surround them before His face. H5437 opens teaching on routes that feel indirect, patterns that circle repeatedly, and changes of direction that God can use without making every detour easy or every outcome immediately clear.
It corrects the belief that a roundabout path proves divine absence and also challenges fatalism that treats repeated harmful patterns as unchangeable circles. A church teaching H5437 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support.
H5437 does not promise that every delay is Gods specific guidance, excuse avoidable wandering or abuse, teach that history is a meaningless cycle, or make a persons harmful circumstances proof of personal guilt.
Exod.13.18
H5437 is a Hebrew verb for turning, circling, surrounding, bordering, changing direction, or causing a transfer; stems, prepositions, and the moving subject identify its active sense.
Israels wilderness routes, encircled cities, turning hearts, and transferred kingdoms display both providence and judgment. The New Testament calls people to turn toward God, walk wisely, and endure indirect paths under Christs lordship without treating its Greek verbs as lexical equivalents of H5437.