An untruth ; by implication, a sham (often adverbial)
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שֶׁקֶר (sheqer) is a Hebrew noun for falsehood, a lie, deception, fraud, or something that proves unfounded or unreliable. It can modify testimony and oaths, name deceptive prophetic claims, describe an idol's false status, expose slogans that create false security, or characterize a hope that fails.
Reader summary
Full entry for שֶׁקֶר (H8267) · Open the biblical lexicon
שֶׁקֶר (sheqer) is a Hebrew noun for falsehood, a lie, deception, fraud, or something that proves unfounded or unreliable. It can modify testimony and oaths, name deceptive prophetic claims, describe an idol's false status, expose slogans that create false security, or characterize a hope that fails.
The BSB source-word alignment has 113 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include lies (13), . . . (9), falsely (9), a lie (6), a lying (6).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 5:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (37), Psalms (22), Proverbs (20), Isaiah (7).
שֶׁקֶר (sheqer) is a Hebrew noun for falsehood, a lie, deception, fraud, or something that proves unfounded or unreliable. It can modify testimony and oaths, name deceptive prophetic claims, describe an idol's false status, expose slogans that create false security, or characterize a hope that fails. Some contexts clearly involve deliberate deceit; the noun itself does not prove a speaker's intention, awareness, diagnosis, or entire character.
Torah treats false testimony as a threat to justice and requires careful investigation. Jeremiah condemns speakers who claim divine authorization they did not receive, but he also challenges deceptive institutional confidence in the temple. Wisdom contrasts reliable speech with lies and exposes charm or promised gain that misleads. Psalm 33 calls the war horse a false hope for salvation, illustrating that sheqer can concern misplaced reliance rather than a spoken sentence.
Truth-telling must serve justice, love, and safety. A mistake, incomplete memory, trauma response, translation difference, disagreement, satire, protected confidentiality, or symptom of illness is not automatically a malicious lie. Allegations of deception require evidence and fair process, especially when reputation, employment, membership, custody, or liberty is at stake. Religious leaders must not label dissent, abuse reports, scientific evidence, or mental-health symptoms as sheqer merely because they challenge authority.
H8267 appears in false testimony, deceptive oaths, fraudulent claims, false prophecy, institutional slogans, idols, unreliable hopes, relational lies, and wisdom contrasts between truth and deception.
The covenant command prohibits false testimony against a neighbor, protecting both justice and reputation.
Israel is to keep far from a false matter in a judicial setting and not participate in condemning the innocent.
Judges must investigate thoroughly when a witness is alleged to have testified falsely, modeling process rather than instant accusation.
Repeated temple slogans become deceptive words when people rely on the institution while persisting in injustice.
The crafted image is called falsehood because it lacks breath and cannot be what worshipers claim for it.
Prophets speak falsehood in the Lord's name without being sent or commanded, joining deceptive content to unauthorized divine attribution.
Falsehood disheartens righteous people and strengthens evildoers, so its effects on vulnerable hearers are part of the indictment.
A war horse is a false hope for victory, using the noun for unreliable military confidence rather than verbal deceit.
Lying lips are detestable while faithful action brings delight, joining speech and sustained reliability.
Micaiah's vision of a lying spirit in the prophets' mouths belongs to a difficult divine-council narrative and should not become a simple theory of every false claim.
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. Deception spanning utterance to substance: false words, false things, false actions—a comprehensive term for anything counterfeit or misleading.
Deception spanning utterance to substance: false words, false things, false actions—a comprehensive term for anything counterfeit or misleading.
an untruth; by implication, a sham (often adverbial) BDB: deception Usage: without a cause, deceit(-ful), false(-hood, -ly), feignedly, liar, lie, lying, vain (thing), wrongfully.
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 1 selected witness from 113 lexical occurrence verses.
שֶׁקֶר is built from this root:
The wicked appear to gain but their reward proves false and unstable. Proverbs 11:18
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H8267 helps teachers address both deception and reckless accusations. The noun names false testimony, unauthorized prophecy, fraudulent worship, empty slogans, and unreliable hopes. It does not allow a listener to infer intention from every error. Deuteronomy's demand for thorough investigation is as relevant as the prohibition itself. Leaders claiming 'God told me' carry a burden of accountable discernment and may not use divine authority to compel money, sex, secrecy, political loyalty, medical neglect, or distrust of evidence.
Communities should correct misinformation transparently, preserve records, distinguish confidentiality from concealment, and protect reporters from retaliation. Trauma can fragment recall; dementia, psychosis, mania, neurological illness, developmental differences, language barriers, and medication effects can alter communication. Those realities call for clinical care and careful evidence, not moral shaming.
Truthfulness also allows prudent privacy and safety planning; a victim is not required to disclose location or plans to an abuser.
Exod.23.7
H8267 is a noun used independently and in constructions such as false witness, false vision, false oath, or deceptive words. It can describe what is factually false, intentionally deceptive, fraudulent, unreliable, or vain in outcome. Related Hebrew terms overlap without being identical, so a gloss from one command should not be imported everywhere.
New Testament teaching on lies, witnesses, false prophecy, testing claims, and truthful speech uses Greek vocabulary and its own settings. Those texts deepen the ethical trajectory but should not be treated as direct lexical occurrences of H8267.
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