To slaughter (in sacrifice or massacre)
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H7819 means to slaughter and is used for animals killed for sacrifice or food and for people killed in massacre. 6, Israel's assembly slaughters the Passover animals at twilight under precise covenant instruction.
Reader summary
Full entry for שָׁחַט (H7819) · Open the biblical lexicon
H7819 means to slaughter and is used for animals killed for sacrifice or food and for people killed in massacre. 6, Israel's assembly slaughters the Passover animals at twilight under precise covenant instruction.
The BSB source-word alignment has 81 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and slaughter (8), and slaughtered (4), is slaughtered (4), they slaughtered (4), Slaughter (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 22:10. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (36), 2 Chronicles (8), Exodus (6), Ezekiel (6).
H7819 means to slaughter and is used for animals killed for sacrifice or food and for people killed in massacre. In Exod. 12. 6, Israel's assembly slaughters the Passover animals at twilight under precise covenant instruction. In Lev. 1. 5, a worshiper slaughters the bull before the Lord while priests handle the blood at the altar. In Ezek. 16. 21, God condemns Jerusalem for slaughtering children and giving them to idols.
H7819 opens teaching on Passover, the gravity of sacrificial death, accountable handling of blood, and God's condemnation of human sacrifice and massacre. It does not make all killing sacred, authorize religious violence, or allow sacrifice language to conceal abuse.
H7819 covers concrete killing by cutting, especially in sacrifice, food preparation, massacre, execution, and prophetic accusation. The object, agent, authorization, and ritual or violent setting determine its moral and theological force.
You must keep it until the fourteenth day of the month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
The whole assembly slaughters the Passover animals at the appointed twilight as deliverance from Egypt approaches.
And he shall slaughter the young bull before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests are to present the blood and splatter it on all sides of the altar at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
The worshiper slaughters the bull before the Lord and priests present its blood according to the altar instructions.
You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols.
Jerusalem's slaughter of children for idols is condemned as covenant betrayal and lethal abuse.
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. Sacrificial slaughter or violent killing; the context—altar or battlefield—determines moral valence
Sacrificial slaughter or violent killing; the context—altar or battlefield—determines moral valence
to slaughter (in sacrifice or massacre) BDB: slaughter Usage: kill, offer, shoot out, slay, slaughter.
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 4 selected witnesses from 82 lexical occurrence verses.
שָׁחַט is a primitive root - no further derivation.
H7819 is intentionally unsentimental. Passover and Levitical worship involve actual death, appointed time, responsible agents, and regulated handling of blood. The texts do not present sacrifice as casual violence or a technique by which worshipers manipulate God. The same verb can name massacre and child sacrifice, making context morally decisive. Ezekiel's accusation destroys any claim that religious devotion can sanctify killing the vulnerable.
Elsewhere rulers slaughter rivals and armies kill captives, exposing how quickly power turns persons into objects. Christian interpretation sees Passover and sacrifice fulfilled in Christ, who gives Himself rather than demanding that His followers victimize others. Faithful teaching faces the cost embedded in sacrificial imagery, refuses graphic spectacle, protects children and vulnerable people, and rejects every appeal to mission, loyalty, or purity that asks someone else to be destroyed for an institution's survival.
Exod.12.6
H7819 is a Hebrew verb for slaughtering by cutting. It can describe sacrifice, but sacrificial meaning is not built into every occurrence; the object and setting distinguish worship, food preparation, massacre, and murder.
The New Testament identifies Christ with Passover and sacrificial fulfillment, while Jesus' voluntary self-giving and protection of the vulnerable oppose attempts to convert other people's suffering into religious capital, institutional necessity, or proof of devotion.