A member of a flock, i.e. a sheep or goat
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This Hebrew noun can identify an individual sheep or goat, with age and setting clarified by the passage. Exodus 12 is especially useful: the animal selected for Passover is described in verse 5 as an unblemished year-old male taken from the sheep or the goats.
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Full entry for שֶׂה (H7716) · Open the biblical lexicon
This Hebrew noun can identify an individual sheep or goat, with age and setting clarified by the passage. Exodus 12 is especially useful: the animal selected for Passover is described in verse 5 as an unblemished year-old male taken from the sheep or the goats.
The BSB source-word alignment has 47 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include sheep (10), a sheep (6), a lamb (5), . . . (2), and another (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 22:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (13), Ezekiel (7), Deuteronomy (5), Leviticus (5).
This Hebrew noun can identify an individual sheep or goat, with age and setting clarified by the passage. Exodus 12 is especially useful: the animal selected for Passover is described in verse 5 as an unblemished year-old male taken from the sheep or the goats. An English rendering such as lamb should therefore be read with the passage's own qualifications. The word is not limited to one age or one sacrificial purpose in every occurrence.
Deuteronomy 22:1 concerns a neighbor's straying animal and the responsibility to return it. Psalm 119:176 uses the image of a lost sheep in a servant's prayer for God to seek him. Isaiah 53:7 compares the afflicted Servant with an animal led to slaughter and a sheep silent before its shearers. Acts 8:32-35 explicitly takes that Isaiah passage as a starting point for the good news about Jesus. Those connections should arise from the cited texts, not from declaring that every ordinary flock animal secretly names Christ.
Passover instructions, a neighbor's lost animal, a servant's closing prayer and Isaiah's suffering Servant give the flock image distinct practical, devotional and redemptive settings.
Your lamb must be an unblemished year-old male, and you may take it from the sheep or the goats.
The animal must be an unblemished year-old male, and the verse expressly permits selection from sheep or goats. The surrounding household instructions provide the setting for this particular Passover requirement.
If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, you must not ignore it; be sure to return it to your brother.
The command requires attention to a brother's straying animal instead of passing it by. The following verses explain safekeeping and return, making neighborly responsibility concrete.
I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.
The psalm ends with the servant admitting that he has strayed and asking God to seek him. His continued remembrance of the commandments stands beside his need for help.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
The comparison describes the afflicted Servant's silence amid oppression and impending death. His innocence and suffering belong to the passage's account, not a general rule forbidding harmed people to speak.
Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” “Here I am, my son,” he replied. “The fire and the wood are here,” said Isaac, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Isaac asks where the animal for the offering is. Read the question with the narrative's resolution: God stops the harm to Isaac, and Abraham offers the provided ram in his son's place.
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. Collective flock member (sheep or goat); foundational sacrificial animal in covenant worship and atonement theology.
Collective flock member (sheep or goat); foundational sacrificial animal in covenant worship and atonement theology.
a member of a flock, i.e. a sheep or goat BDB: one of a flock Usage: (lesser, small) cattle, ewe, goat, lamb, sheep. Compare 2089.
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 2 selected witnesses from 47 lexical occurrence verses.
שֶׂה 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.
Exodus 12:3-5 places the Passover animal within instructions addressed to Israel's households. Selection, sharing when a household is too small, and the animal's stated qualifications all matter. The noun should not be narrowed by an English association that overlooks the express mention of goats. Careful lexical reading serves attention to the command as given.
The wider canon supplies strong connections without requiring every occurrence to be symbolic. Paul identifies Christ as the sacrificed Passover lamb in First Corinthians 5:7 and connects that declaration with sincerity and truth. Philip begins with Isaiah's suffering-animal comparison and announces Jesus in Acts 8. These are explicit witnesses for Christian teaching. Deuteronomy's lost animal still calls for practical care, and the psalmist's lost-sheep prayer still expresses dependence. Honoring those differences gives the redemptive passages their proper force while refusing to turn the Servant's silence into a demand that victims conceal wrongdoing.
Exod.12.5
The noun identifies a member of the small livestock flock, including sheep or goats. Particular passages can specify a young animal, an offering or a comparison, but those features should not be installed as the meaning of every occurrence. The dictionary form śeh reflects the Hebrew sin letter.
First Corinthians 5:7 explicitly connects Christ's sacrifice with Passover, and Acts 8:32-35 explicitly connects Isaiah's passage with Jesus. These textual witnesses support the redemptive reading. A sheep in a neighbor-care command need not carry the same function, and a suffering person's protective speech is not prohibited by the Servant's distinctive mission.