To quaff , i.e. (causatively) to irrigate or furnish a potion to
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H8248 is a Hebrew verb used for giving someone or something drink, causing a person to drink, watering animals or land, irrigating growth, and, in some contexts, drenching or making drunk. Proverbs 25:21 commands giving water to a thirsty enemy, placing the act within merciful treatment rather than deserved retaliation.
Reader summary
Full entry for שָׁקָה (H8248) · Open the biblical lexicon
H8248 is a Hebrew verb used for giving someone or something drink, causing a person to drink, watering animals or land, irrigating growth, and, in some contexts, drenching or making drunk. Proverbs 25:21 commands giving water to a thirsty enemy, placing the act within merciful treatment rather than deserved retaliation.
The BSB source-word alignment has 62 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include to drink (8), drink (5), and watered (4), to water (4), drunk (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 2:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Genesis (19), Jeremiah (7), Psalms (7), Exodus (4).
H8248 is a Hebrew verb used for giving someone or something drink, causing a person to drink, watering animals or land, irrigating growth, and, in some contexts, drenching or making drunk. Proverbs 25:21 commands giving water to a thirsty enemy, placing the act within merciful treatment rather than deserved retaliation. Exodus 2:17 says Moses defended the daughters of Midian and watered their flock, joining provision with protection from those who drove them away.
Isaiah 27:3 portrays the Lord as the keeper who continually waters His vineyard and guards it day and night. Other passages use the same verb for forced drinking, intoxication, poisoned water, and humiliating harm, so the action is not morally positive by itself. H8248 opens teaching on embodied need, hospitality, creation care, divine provision, and responsible power.
It corrects readings that call every act of giving beneficial while ignoring consent, substance, purpose, and consequence.
H8248 commonly describes supplying drink or water, whether to people, animals, gardens, or fields. Its causative force can serve life through hospitality and irrigation, but it can also describe coercion, intoxication, punishment, or abuse. The giver, recipient, substance, and purpose determine the moral shape.
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
The hearer is commanded to give food and water to a hungry and thirsty enemy, answering vulnerability with concrete mercy.
And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.
After defending the daughters of Midian from aggressive shepherds, Moses waters their flock and makes practical protection possible.
I, the Lord, am its keeper; I water it continually. I guard it night and day so no one can disturb it;
The Lord identifies Himself as the keeper who continually waters and guards His vineyard so that it may remain secure.
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. To cause drinking; primarily irrigation of land, secondarily provision of sustenance to humans or animals.
To cause drinking; primarily irrigation of land, secondarily provision of sustenance to humans or animals.
to quaff, i.e. (causatively) to irrigate or furnish a potion to BDB: cause to drink water Usage: cause to (give, give to, let, make to) drink, drown, moisten, water. See 7937, 8354.
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 62 lexical occurrence verses.
שָׁקָה 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.
H8248 draws attention to the power involved in supplying what another living creature needs. Water offered to an enemy in Proverbs is mercy made material; it refuses to let hostility erase the other's creaturely need. Moses' watering of the flock follows his intervention against shepherds who drove women away, so service is joined to protection rather than performed as a display detached from justice.
Isaiah's vineyard image places sustaining water within the Lord's vigilant care. He both nourishes and guards what belongs to Him. Yet the same verb can describe making someone drunk, forcing bitter or poisoned water upon a person, or drenching land with blood. Vocabulary alone therefore cannot sanctify an action. A giver may preserve life or exploit dependence.
Faithful use of H8248 should honor access to clean water, responsible care for animals and land, sober hospitality, and help that preserves dignity. It should also name coercive drinking, intoxication used for sexual harm, and contaminated provision as violations rather than blessings. God's generous care is never permission for leaders or caregivers to control another person's body.
The word invites practical mercy disciplined by truth, consent, and protection.
Prov.25.21
H8248 is a Hebrew verb often appearing in causative forms, so English versions commonly render it give drink, make drink, or water. Objects can include people, livestock, gardens, land, or vineyards, and figurative extensions can include drenching and intoxication.
The New Testament continues Scripture's concern for giving drink to the thirsty, merciful treatment of enemies, sober conduct, and protection from exploitation. Those themes illuminate the canon's moral pattern without making every later water or drink text an occurrence of H8248.