שְׁכֶם
she.khem
shoulder
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Šekem (שְׁכֶם): The Shoulder in Biblical Hebrew The Hebrew word šekem refers to the shoulder, the body part connecting the arm to the torso. With twenty-one occurrences in the biblical text, it appears frequently enough to establish a consistent semantic domain, though the data provided does not detail those specific usages or contexts. The shoulder held practical and symbolic significance in ancient Hebrew culture. As the body's connection point between the upper limb and the trunk, it was naturally associated with bearing weight and carrying loads—whether literal burdens, tools, or symbolic responsibilities. The repeated use of this term across biblical texts suggests that shoulder-related imagery conveyed concepts of strength, burden-bearing, and physical capability within the Hebrew conceptual framework. Without access to the specific passages where šekem appears, we cannot determine whether the term was used primarily in literal physical descriptions, metaphorical expressions (such as bearing responsibility), or religious contexts. However, its moderate frequency of occurrence indicates that the shoulder was a meaningful reference point in biblical Hebrew discourse, sufficient to warrant consistent lexical recognition across the scriptural corpus.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
21 total occurrences across the text
Surely I would carry it on my shoulder; and I would bind it to me as a crown.
Psalms 21:12For you will make them turn their back, when you aim drawn bows at their face.
Psalms 81:6“I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket.
Isaiah 9:4For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.
Isaiah 9:6For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 10:27It will happen in that day that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil.
Isaiah 14:25that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and tread him under foot on my mountains. Then his yoke will leave them, and his burden leave their shoulders.
Isaiah 22:22I will lay the key of David’s house on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut. He will shut, and no one will open.
Zephaniah 3:9For then I will purify the lips of the peoples, that they may all call on Yahweh’s name, to serve him shoulder to shoulder.
Genesis 9:23Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness.
Genesis 21:14Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread and a container of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder; and gave her the child, and sent her away. She departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
Genesis 24:15Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher on her shoulder.
Genesis 24:45Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her pitcher on her shoulder. She went down to the spring, and drew. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’
Genesis 48:22Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.”
Genesis 49:15He saw a resting place, that it was good, the land, that it was pleasant. He bows his shoulder to the burden, and becomes a servant doing forced labor.
Exodus 12:34The people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes on their shoulders.
Joshua 4:5Joshua said to them, “Cross before the ark of Yahweh your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you pick up a stone and put it on your shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel;
1 Samuel 9:2He had a son, whose name was Saul, an impressive young man; and there was not among the children of Israel a better person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was taller than any of the people.
Judges 9:48Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an ax in his hand, and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it up, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, “What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done!”
1 Samuel 10:9It was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all those signs happened that day.
1 Samuel 10:23They ran and got him there. When he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward.