Bible Word Study
שְׁאָל
Shᵉʼâl · Sheal, an Israelite
שְׁאָל
Sheal, an Israelite
Definition
Sheal is a proper noun referring to an Israelite man mentioned in the context of the post-exilic community. The name appears only once in the Hebrew Bible, in Ezra 10:29, where Sheal is listed among those who had married foreign wives and pledged to send them away according to the reforms led by Ezra. As a personal name, it carries the meaning 'request' or 'petition,' derived from its root verb. In this specific historical and genealogical context, it serves to identify an individual within a list, with no other narrative or descriptive details provided about his life or actions.
Biblical Usage
This word is used exclusively as a proper name for a person. Its single occurrence is in Ezra 10:29, within a list of men who were confronted about intermarriage with foreign women following the return from the Babylonian exile. The usage is purely genealogical and administrative, serving to record the name of an individual who participated in a covenant of reform. There are no other contexts or books where this specific name appears.
Etymology
The name Sheal (שְׁאָל) is a derivative of the common Hebrew root שָׁאַל (shā'al, H7592), which means 'to ask, request, inquire, or borrow.' It is a qal passive participle form, meaning 'asked for' or 'requested.' As a personal name, it follows a common biblical pattern where names are formed from verbs or nouns expressing a characteristic, hope, or circumstance related to the child, such as a child who was 'requested' from God.
Semantic Range
In ancient Israelite culture, personal names were often significant and thought to reflect character, destiny, or parental sentiment. A name like Sheal ('requested') may indicate a child who was longed for or prayed for by his parents. Its appearance in Ezra 10 highlights the tension within the restored community over maintaining ethnic and religious purity, as recorded in administrative lists that held individuals accountable to communal covenant obligations. שָׁאַל (shā'al, H7592) — the root verb meaning 'to ask, request, inquire.'
Word Details
How this works
Definitions are from the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB, 1906, public domain). Concordance and morphology data are from the OSHB (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible).
Full methodology & sources →References
- Abbott-Smith, G. (1921) A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament. Edinburgh: T&T Clark. [Public Domain]
- Brown, F., Driver, S.R. and Briggs, C.A. (1906) A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Tyndale Brief lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (TBESG). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Formatted full LSJ (TFLSJ). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Thayer, J.H. (1889) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. [Public Domain]
- Gesenius, W. (1846) Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament. [Public Domain]
- Dodson, J. (2010) Greek Lexicon. Biblical Humanities. [CC0]