Exiled ; captured ; as noun, exile (abstractly or concretely and collectively); by extension, booty
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The Hebrew noun sheviy names captivity, a captive person or group, or what has been taken. Biblical scenes use it for prisoners seized in attack, families living under the consequences of national defeat, exiles longing for return, and even objects carried away as spoil.
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Full entry for שְׁבִי (H7628) · Open the biblical lexicon
The Hebrew noun sheviy names captivity, a captive person or group, or what has been taken. Biblical scenes use it for prisoners seized in attack, families living under the consequences of national defeat, exiles longing for return, and even objects carried away as spoil.
The BSB source-word alignment has 50 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include into captivity (9), the captives (4), from the captivity (3), as captives (2), captive (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 12:29. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (10), Isaiah (6), 2 Chronicles (4), Ezra (4).
The Hebrew noun sheviy names captivity, a captive person or group, or what has been taken. Biblical scenes use it for prisoners seized in attack, families living under the consequences of national defeat, exiles longing for return, and even objects carried away as spoil. The noun describes a condition or its human occupants; it does not make the captive responsible for the captor's violence.
Lamentations names children led away while the speaker also confesses Jerusalem's rebellion, so communal theological interpretation must not erase the suffering or agency of particular victims. Isaiah announces both tyrannical captivity and the Lord's promise to contend for captives and save children. The same book calls captive Zion to rise and remove her chains, but that prophetic summons must not become blame toward people who cannot free themselves.
Nehemiah's returned community shows that release is followed by rebuilding, worship, memory, and shared life rather than instant recovery. Responsible teaching names the captor, the captive, the violence or judgment described, and the text's movement toward lament, release, or return. It protects displaced people from stigma and treats restoration as a sustained work of safety, belonging, justice, and care.
Sheviy can name the condition of captivity, people held as captives, or captured goods. Number, syntactic role, agent, and narrative setting distinguish a captive person, collective exile, and what is taken in war.
When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked Israel and captured some prisoners.
The king of Arad attacks Israel and captures prisoners as the people travel near the Negev.
For behold, this is why our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives are in captivity.
Hezekiah names sons, daughters, and wives living in captivity amid his confession of the prior generation's unfaithfulness.
Can the plunder be snatched from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be delivered?
Isaiah asks whether captives can be taken from a mighty or tyrannical power before the Lord answers with promised intervention.
Shake off your dust! Rise up and sit on your throne, O Jerusalem. Remove the chains from your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.
Captive Daughter Zion is summoned to rise, take her seat, and remove the chains from her neck.
Her foes have become her masters; her enemies are at ease. For the Lord has brought her grief because of her many transgressions. Her children have gone away as captives before the enemy.
Jerusalem laments that her children have gone away as captives before the enemy amid grief over the city's transgressions.
The whole assembly that had returned from exile made booths and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated like this. And there was great rejoicing.
The assembly returned from exile keeps the festival in booths and experiences great rejoicing.
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. Captivity as both the state of deportation and the collective body of exiles; foundational to Israel's exile theology.
Captivity as both the state of deportation and the collective body of exiles; foundational to Israel's exile theology.
exiled; captured; as noun, exile (abstractly or concretely and collectively); by extension, booty BDB: captivity Usage: captive(-ity), prisoners, × take away, that was taken.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 48 lexical occurrence verses.
שְׁבִי 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.
Sheviy gives language to a condition produced by power. Numbers 21 reports prisoners taken in an attack, so the noun must not hide the violence that created their status. Second Chronicles 29 joins national confession with the fact that sons, daughters, and wives remain in captivity. The passage can call a community to repentance without making every captive individually guilty for what happened to them.
Isaiah 49 asks whether tyrannical power can be overcome and answers by centering the Lord's contention with the oppressor and care for children. Rescue hope therefore does not depend on a captive proving strength or worth. Isaiah 52 addresses Zion as one who will rise and remove chains within a larger announcement of divine redemption. It is not permission to ask why an abused, trafficked, imprisoned, or displaced person has not simply left.
Lamentations 1 holds covenant confession beside the visible grief of children taken away. Faithful teaching preserves both truths while refusing to assign a city's corporate guilt mechanically to each suffering child. Nehemiah 8 shows returned exiles worshiping and rejoicing within a rebuilt communal setting. Return does not erase loss or finish recovery in one moment.
Faithful application listens to displaced people, protects confidential information, supports lawful release and family reunification, and plans for housing, worship access, trauma care, education, and belonging without coercion.
Isa.49.24
Sheviy transliterates Hebrew שְׁבִי. The governed morphology records nominal absolute and construct forms as well as an adjectival use; grammar and context show whether the term points to captivity, a captive person or group, or what has been captured.
New Testament writers use several Greek nouns and verbs for captivity, prisoners, rescue, and freedom. Christ's deliverance gives canonical hope, but no later lexical connection should erase the historical suffering, responsible agents, or covenant setting of an Old Testament captivity text.