שָׂחָה

# The Hebrew Word for Swimming: שָׂחָה (sachah) The Hebrew verb שָׂחָה (sachah) carries the straightforward meaning "to swim," denoting the physical act of moving through water. With only three occurrences in the biblical text, this is a relatively rare word, suggesting that swimming itself was not a frequent topic of biblical narrative or instruction. The limited attestation indicates that the writers of Hebrew scripture had less occasion to describe this activity compared to more common verbs related to water, travel, or daily life. The rarity of this verb reflects broader patterns in ancient Hebrew literature, where aquatic activities feature less prominently than terrestrial ones. The three biblical instances represent the complete evidence for how the ancient Hebrew-speaking community linguistically encoded the concept of swimming. Without access to expanded context from those three passages, the definition remains stable and literal—a specific physical action without apparent metaphorical extension or theological freight in the biblical corpus itself.