Strong’s H5595 · Hebrew

סָפָה
çâphâh
saw-faw'

Definition

properly, to scrape (literally, to shave; but usually figuratively) together (i.e. to accumulate or increase) or away (i.e. to scatter, remove, or ruin; intransitively, to perish)

Etymology

a primitive root;

Where the KJV renders it

  • add
  • augment
  • consume
  • destroy
  • heap
  • join
  • perish
  • put

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.