Evil (as destructive ), literally ( ruin ) or morally (especially guile ); figuratively idolatry (as false, subjective), uselessness (as deceptive, objective; also adverbially, in vain )
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H7723, šāwʾ, is a Hebrew noun for emptiness, falsehood, deception, worthlessness, or vanity. It describes taking the LORD's name in vain, false reports and testimony, empty legal pleas, lying visions, false oaths, idolatrous unreality, futile labor, flattering speech, and months experienced as futility.
Reader summary
Full entry for שָׁוְא (H7723) · Open the biblical lexicon
H7723, šāwʾ, is a Hebrew noun for emptiness, falsehood, deception, worthlessness, or vanity. It describes taking the LORD's name in vain, false reports and testimony, empty legal pleas, lying visions, false oaths, idolatrous unreality, futile labor, flattering speech, and months experienced as futility.
The BSB source-word alignment has 53 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include in vain (10), falsehood (4), a false (3), false (3), false visions (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 20:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (15), Ezekiel (9), Job (6), Jeremiah (5).
H7723, šāwʾ, is a Hebrew noun for emptiness, falsehood, deception, worthlessness, or vanity. It describes taking the Lord's name in vain, false reports and testimony, empty legal pleas, lying visions, false oaths, idolatrous unreality, futile labor, flattering speech, and months experienced as futility. English translations may render the same noun as false, vain, worthless, empty, deceit, futility, lie, or idol. The word does not declare created people or ordinary work worthless. It exposes claims, worship, speech, trust, or effort severed from truth and from the Lord who gives them substance.
Torah joins H7723 to both worship and neighbor justice. The Lord's name must not be carried or invoked emptily, and Israel must not circulate a false report or bear false witness. The prophets then confront solemn assemblies whose injustice makes offerings unacceptable, leaders who build covenants on false oaths, and prophets who say the Lord has spoken when He has not sent them. Religious language can therefore be vain while sounding devout. A divine name, claimed vision, oath, or public accusation becomes destructive when it borrows holy authority for deception or refuses the justice God requires.
Other passages name felt or practical futility. Job experiences months as empty misery, while Psalm 127 says human labor and vigilance are vain unless the Lord establishes and guards. That psalm does not oppose planning, work, locks, medicine, or public safety; it denies autonomous self-sufficiency. Jonah and Psalms contrast worthless idols with the Lord's steadfast love, and Malachi records the cynical claim that serving God is futile before God hears those who fear Him. Pastoral use should make room for exhausted lament, test prophetic and institutional claims, refuse to label persons worthless, and redirect trust from deception toward truthful worship and responsible work under God.
H7723 traces empty use of God's name, false reports and testimony, unjust worship, lying prophecy, deceptive covenants, idolatrous trust, exhausted futility, and labor that lacks the Lord's establishing purpose.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.
The command protects the Lord's name from empty, false, or wrongful use. It reaches beyond careless exclamation to oaths, claims, and actions that attach divine authority to deception.
“You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.
Falsehood becomes communal harm when a report is circulated and a witness joins wrongdoing. Verification and refusal to amplify rumor are covenant duties.
Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me. New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations—I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly.
The offerings are called worthless because solemn worship is joined to injustice and unrepentant iniquity. Isaiah condemns corrupted practice, not the Lord's appointed calendar or Jewish worship as such.
No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
Legal speech has lost truth and justice, so empty pleas generate further harm. The passage exposes corrupt process rather than making advocacy itself suspect.
For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations within the house of Israel,
The Lord promises an end to visions that flatter and fail. Prophetic claims are accountable to the speaker's commission, truth, and fulfillment rather than charisma alone.
They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim, ‘Thus declares the Lord,’ when the Lord did not send them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message.
The prophets claim divine speech without being sent. Waiting for their own prediction does not convert an unauthorized and false message into revelation.
Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken.
False prophecy covers leaders' violence and exploitation like whitewash. Spiritual assurance becomes complicity when it conceals structural harm instead of naming it.
They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.
Empty words and false oaths corrupt public agreements until poisonous judgment spreads through the land. Formal covenant language cannot make deceit fruitful.
So I am allotted months of futility, and nights of misery are appointed to me.
Job names prolonged suffering as futile from within the experience. His lament should be heard rather than corrected with a quick claim that every pain already feels purposeful.
If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit,
Job places falsehood within his oath of integrity and invites just weighing. Truth claims remain open to examination rather than depending on reputation alone.
Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion.
The prayer contrasts loyalty to empty objects of trust with the Lord's covenant love. Jonah's confession must also be tested by the book's later exposure of his resistant heart.
They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.
False speech fractures neighbor relations through flattery and divided intention. The psalm seeks the Lord's protection for people harmed by manipulative words.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.
The prayer asks for redirected attention and renewed life. Worthlessness describes what captures the gaze without giving life, not the bodies or people a worshiper sees.
Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain; unless the Lord protects the city, its watchmen stand guard in vain.
Building and guarding are real human tasks, yet they cannot secure their own ultimate success. Dependence on the Lord governs work rather than abolishing skill, planning, or watchfulness.
Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.
The prayer joins truthful speech to contented provision, recognizing that economic extremes can become settings of temptation. Integrity is sought in words and material life together.
You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts?
The cynical speech evaluates worship only by immediate gain. The chapter answers with the Lord's listening remembrance and coming distinction, not with contempt for honest lament.
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.
Hebrew word. evil (as destructive ), literally ( ruin ) or morally (especially guile ); figuratively idolatry (as false, subjective), uselessness (as deceptive, objective; also adverbially, in vain )
evil (as destructive), literally (ruin) or morally (especially guile); figuratively idolatry (as false, subjective), uselessness (as deceptive, objective; also adverbially, in vain) BDB: emptiness Usage: false(-ly), lie, lying, vain, vanity.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
שָׁוְא is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H7723 exposes unreality wearing the appearance of weight. Torah forbids carrying the Lord's name emptily and spreading false reports that recruit others into malicious witness. Isaiah calls offerings worthless when solemn worship coexists with injustice. Ezekiel condemns prophets who claim the Lord's speech without being sent and whitewash violence through reassuring visions.
Psalms and Jonah identify idols and manipulative speech as empty trusts, while Psalm 127 says even real building and guarding fail when treated as self-establishing. Job gives the word to exhausted lament, proving that futility can describe how suffering is honestly experienced without declaring the sufferer faithless. Churches should verify reports, test prophecy, connect worship to justice, receive lament, and plan responsibly under God's providence.
They must never turn worthlessness language against human beings made in God's image.
Exod.23.1
H7723 is a masculine singular noun represented by falsehood, emptiness, vanity, worthlessness, deceit, futility, lie, idol, and the adverbial phrase in vain. The reviewed citation-form transliteration šāwʾ follows the lemma and governed compound evidence because the selected artifact leaves transliteration blank. Context identifies whether the emptiness is verbal, legal, cultic, prophetic, idolatrous, experiential, or practical.
Jesus condemns public piety emptied by injustice and warns against false prophets. The apostles require truthful speech because believers belong to one another and test spiritual claims rather than accepting them uncritically. The New Testament's language of creation, truth, and abiding fruit deepens the contrast between empty appearance and life established in God.