שָׁתָה
sha.tah
to drink
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# שָׁתָה (Shatar): The Hebrew Verb "to Drink" The Hebrew verb *shatar* appears 217 times throughout the Hebrew Bible, making it a frequently used term for the basic human action of consuming liquid. The word carries the straightforward meaning "to drink" and functions as a standard verb for this physical activity across biblical narrative and poetry. Its high frequency of occurrence reflects the importance of hydration and beverage consumption in both everyday life and religious contexts in ancient Israel. The prevalence of this verb across 217 biblical passages suggests its use spans diverse contexts—from mundane descriptions of people and animals drinking water or wine, to metaphorical applications and religious scenarios. The sheer number of occurrences indicates that drinking was a topic of sufficient importance to biblical authors that it warranted consistent linguistic reference. This might reflect the practical concerns of life in an arid environment where water access was significant, as well as the cultural importance of wine and other beverages in Israelite social and religious practices. Without additional lexical data specifying particular nuances or semantic ranges, *shatar* functions as the primary Hebrew verb for the simple act of drinking, maintaining this core meaning consistently throughout its biblical appearances.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
217 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
Then Ezra rose up from before God’s house, and went into the room of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. When he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of their trespass of the captivity.
Nehemiah 8:10Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared, for today is holy to our Lord. Don’t be grieved, for the joy of Yahweh is your strength.”
Nehemiah 8:12All the people went their way to eat, to drink, to send portions, and to celebrate, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Esther 3:15The couriers went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given out in the citadel of Susa. The king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Susa was perplexed.
Esther 4:16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Susa, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
Esther 7:1So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.
Job 1:4His sons went and held a feast in the house of each one on his birthday; and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
Job 1:13It fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
Job 1:18While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,
Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
Job 15:16how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
Job 21:20Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
Job 34:7What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water,
Psalms 50:13Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
Psalms 69:12Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
Psalms 75:8For in Yahweh’s hand there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs.
Psalms 78:44he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.
Psalms 110:7He will drink of the brook on the way; therefore he will lift up his head.
Proverbs 4:17For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Proverbs 5:15Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
Proverbs 9:5“Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed!
Proverbs 23:7for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
Proverbs 26:6One who sends a message by the hand of a fool is cutting off feet and drinking violence.
Proverbs 31:4It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes to say, ‘Where is strong drink?’
Proverbs 31:5lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the justice due to anyone who is afflicted.
Proverbs 31:7Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
Ecclesiastes 2:24There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.
Ecclesiastes 3:13Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 5:18Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion.
Ecclesiastes 8:15Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 9:7Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.
Song of Solomon 5:1I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
Song of Solomon 5:1I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
Isaiah 5:22Woe to those who are mighty to drink wine, and champions at mixing strong drink;
Isaiah 21:5They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!
Isaiah 22:13and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”
Isaiah 22:13and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”
Isaiah 24:9They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it.
Isaiah 24:9They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it.
Isaiah 29:8It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.
Isaiah 36:12But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”
Isaiah 36:16Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern;
Isaiah 37:25I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.”
Isaiah 44:12The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.
Isaiah 51:17Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
Isaiah 51:17Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
Isaiah 51:22Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more.
Isaiah 62:8Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, “Surely I will no more give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners will not drink your new wine, for which you have labored,
Isaiah 62:9but those who have harvested it will eat it, and praise Yahweh. Those who have gathered it will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”
Isaiah 65:13Therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry; behold, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Behold, my servants will rejoice, but you will be disappointed;