To sate , i.e. fill to satisfaction (literally or figuratively)
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שָׂבַע (saba) means to be satisfied, filled, sated, or supplied with enough. It often describes eating until full, but it can also concern years of life, desire, wealth, contempt, grief, violence, or the filling of land and creatures.
Reader summary
Full entry for שָׂבַע (H7646) · Open the biblical lexicon
שָׂבַע (saba) means to be satisfied, filled, sated, or supplied with enough. It often describes eating until full, but it can also concern years of life, desire, wealth, contempt, grief, violence, or the filling of land and creatures.
The BSB source-word alignment has 97 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include satisfied (12), and be satisfied (5), and are satisfied (3), and satisfy (3), be satisfied (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 16:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (23), Proverbs (18), Deuteronomy (7), Isaiah (7).
שָׂבַע (saba) means to be satisfied, filled, sated, or supplied with enough. It often describes eating until full, but it can also concern years of life, desire, wealth, contempt, grief, violence, or the filling of land and creatures. Satisfaction may be welcomed provision, dangerous excess, bitter experience, or an appetite that remains unsatisfied. The object and moral setting determine whether fullness is blessing, warning, judgment, or complaint.
Deuteronomy treats eating and being satisfied as a covenant gift and immediately warns that fullness can lead to forgetting the Lord. It also directs provision toward Levites, immigrants, orphans, and widows so that they may eat and be satisfied. The issue is not that material sufficiency is spiritually inferior. Food, rain, rest, and secure provision are real goods, while abundance becomes dangerous when gratitude, justice, and memory disappear.
Psalms speak of poor people eating and being satisfied, God's open hand filling living creatures, and the worshiper satisfied in God's presence. Psalm 17:15 may look toward waking after a night, restored communion, or resurrection hope; its interpretation should remain appropriately open. Isaiah 53:11 says the servant will see and be satisfied within the servant poem, but that verb alone does not settle debates about atonement scope or mechanics.
Saba covers bodily fullness, sufficient provision, long life, fulfilled desire, spiritual or relational satisfaction, and destructive satiation. Scripture both celebrates enough and exposes appetites that cannot be filled.
God promises meat and bread so Israel will eat and be satisfied in the wilderness provision narrative.
Israel is commanded to bless the Lord after eating and being satisfied in the good land.
The triennial tithe provides for Levites, immigrants, orphans, and widows to eat and be satisfied.
Boaz ensures that Ruth eats until satisfied and has food left over during the harvest meal.
The servant sees the outcome of anguish and is satisfied within the poem's account of bearing iniquity and justifying many.
Pouring oneself out for hungry people is joined to the promise that God will satisfy needs in scorched places.
Israel becomes satisfied, proud, and forgetful, repeating Deuteronomy's warning about abundance.
The psalmist expects to see God's face in righteousness and be satisfied upon waking with God's likeness or presence.
Afflicted or poor worshipers eat and are satisfied in the psalm's widening celebration.
God opens his hand and satisfies the desire of living creatures.
The proverb advises eating only enough honey, since excess can produce sickness.
The lover of money is never satisfied with money, exposing an appetite abundance cannot fill.
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. Satisfaction achieved through fullness; ranges from literal consumption to figurative spiritual contentment and abundance.
Satisfaction achieved through fullness; ranges from literal consumption to figurative spiritual contentment and abundance.
to sate, i.e. fill to satisfaction (literally or figuratively) BDB: be sated Usage: have enough, fill (full, self, with), be (to the) full (of), have plenty of, be satiate, satisfy (with), suffice, be weary of.
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 97 lexical occurrence verses.
שָׂבַע 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.
Saba asks what fills a person, who has enough, and what happens after abundance arrives. Deuteronomy joins full tables to gratitude and memory and extends food to people without land security. Ruth shows dignifying provision for a vulnerable worker. Isaiah 58 links satisfaction to concrete care for hungry people. Proverbs honors enough and warns about excess, while Ecclesiastes says money cannot satisfy its lover.
Teaching should not spiritualize hunger, shame people who need food assistance, or turn contentment into a demand that exploited people accept deprivation. It should also avoid moralizing body size, appetite, medication effects, eating disorders, food allergies, disability, or culturally different eating practices. Safe application supports access to food and qualified medical or mental-health care.
Deut.8.10
H7646 is a stative or factitive satisfaction verb used with food, desire, years, contempt, violence, and figurative experience. Enough, full, sated, and satisfied carry different connotations according to the object.
The New Testament speaks about feeding hungry people, contentment, wealth's limits, Eucharistic fellowship, and final satisfaction in God's presence. Those themes resonate canonically but require their own vocabulary and social contexts.
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