To lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)
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H7901, šāḵaḇ, is a Hebrew verb whose central action is to lie down or be laid down. Its contexts can describe going to bed, resting, lodging, lying in a particular place, sexual intercourse, a person being made to lie down, or death in formulas such as resting with one's fathers.
Reader summary
Full entry for שָׁכַב (H7901) · Open the biblical lexicon
H7901, šāḵaḇ, is a Hebrew verb whose central action is to lie down or be laid down. Its contexts can describe going to bed, resting, lodging, lying in a particular place, sexual intercourse, a person being made to lie down, or death in formulas such as resting with one's fathers.
The BSB source-word alignment has 208 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include rested (32), lies (9), Lie down (8), and lay down (6), and lie down (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 19:4. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Kings (21), Genesis (21), 2 Kings (19), 2 Samuel (18).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
H7901, šāḵaḇ, is a Hebrew verb whose central action is to lie down or be laid down. Its contexts can describe going to bed, resting, lodging, lying in a particular place, sexual intercourse, a person being made to lie down, or death in formulas such as resting with one's fathers. These are contextually governed senses of one positional verb, not interchangeable definitions.
The word does not make an act peaceful, consensual, sinful, or final by itself. Psalm 4 uses the verb for lying down and sleeping in the safety the Lord provides. Ruth 3 uses it for Ruth remaining at Boaz's feet until morning while he preserves the nearer redeemer's prior claim. The narrative calls Ruth a woman of noble character and carefully records where she lay.
The verb alone supplies no basis for sexualizing that scene. Ordinary rest, physical position, and lodging must remain ordinary unless the passage provides further information. Other passages use the same verb for sexual intercourse. Leviticus 15:18 places intercourse within ritual-purity instruction, requires both persons to bathe, and assigns temporary uncleanness until evening.
It does not label the act a moral transgression. Second Samuel 13 is altogether different: Tamar refuses, names the proposed act disgraceful, and is overpowered and violated when Amnon refuses to listen. H7901 describes the sexual act but does not encode consent. The people involved, their speech and agency, the use of force, and the narrative's judgment establish the moral character of the event.
The word must never be allowed to soften rape into neutral relations or shift responsibility to the person harmed. First Kings 2 uses the verb in reporting David's death and immediately adds his burial. That formula does not make ordinary sleep identical to death, nor does the verb settle questions about consciousness after death or the intermediate state. Faithful teaching should name the local sense plainly, respect bodily vulnerability, distinguish ritual status from moral guilt, honor consent, and speak truthfully about violence and mortality.
It must not sexualize neutral scenes, euphemize abuse, shame survivors, or build an entire doctrine of rest, sex, or death from the lexeme alone.
H7901 begins with the bodily action of lying down, but its contexts range across sleep, lodging, sexual intercourse, assault, physical placement, and death formulas. Immediate context must establish the specific sense and its moral evaluation.
I will lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
The verb names ordinary lying down for sleep. Peace and safety come from the psalmist's confidence in the Lord, not from the bodily posture itself.
Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he wants to redeem you, good. Let him redeem you. But if he does not want to redeem you, as surely as the Lord lives, I will. Now lie here until morning.”
Boaz tells Ruth to remain until morning while respecting the nearer redeemer's claim. The next verse locates her at his feet, so H7901 does not prove sexual intercourse.
If a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both must bathe with water, and they will remain unclean until evening.
Here the verb refers to sexual intercourse within ritual-purity instruction. Temporary washing and uncleanness must not be recast as permanent shame or automatic moral guilt.
But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her.
Tamar's refusal, Amnon's superior force, and the narrator's word violated identify rape. H7901 neither implies consent nor neutralizes the passage's explicit account of violence.
Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.
The burial statement identifies rested with his fathers as a death formula. The occurrence does not make death ordinary sleep or establish a complete doctrine of the afterlife.
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. Foundational posture encompassing rest, vulnerability, intimacy, and death—the horizontal position of human dependence.
Foundational posture encompassing rest, vulnerability, intimacy, and death—the horizontal position of human dependence.
to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose) BDB: lie down Usage: × at all, cast down, (lover-)lay (self) (down), (make to) lie (down, down to sleep, still with), lodge, ravish, take rest, sleep, stay.
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 3 selected witnesses from 213 lexical occurrence verses.
שָׁכַב is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Psalm 4:8 shows H7901 in its ordinary bodily sense as the worshiper lies down and sleeps under the Lord's protection. Ruth 3:13 likewise describes remaining in a location until morning while Boaz follows an accountable redemption process; the verb does not sexualize Ruth's presence. Leviticus 15:18 uses the same root for intercourse within temporary ritual-purity instruction, which must not be confused with moral condemnation.
Second Samuel 13:14 records an altogether different sexual event. Tamar says no, names the proposed act disgraceful, and is overpowered when Amnon refuses to listen. The narrative identifies violation, so responsible teaching must name rape and center the perpetrator's refusal and force rather than hiding violence beneath neutral wording. First Kings 2:10 then uses the verb in a death formula joined directly to burial.
These contexts demonstrate why H7901 cannot carry one emotional or moral value. A posture may be peaceful, vulnerable, intimate, coerced, or associated with death. Scripture supplies those distinctions through actors, speech, agency, force, covenant setting, and outcome. Churches should protect bodily agency, distinguish consent from mere physical proximity, refuse survivor blame, and avoid using ritual or death language to shame or speculate.
Ps.4.8
The SBL Academic citation form is šāḵaḇ. Across its biblical forms, H7901 appears predominantly in the Qal stem, with a smaller number of Hiphil and Hophal forms. Stem, syntax, participants, and result govern whether the action describes lying down, sleeping, intercourse, placement, or a death formula.
The Old Testament uses H7901 for bodily rest, sexual acts, violence, and death formulas. The New Testament uses distinct Greek vocabulary for sleeping, reclining, intercourse, dying, and resurrection hope. Those later passages can deepen theological reflection, but they must not be treated as direct H7901 occurrences or used to erase its local Hebrew contexts.