Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

kâbhash - כּבש (Strong's #3533)
Subdue

כּבש kâbhash (Strong's #3533) "subdue" is used just 15 times in the Bible, the first of which is in the creation account:

"Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" (Genesis 1:28)

In our modern world of political and theological correctness there has been a tendency to try and soften this word's meaning toward something more agricultural or constructive. Most of these attempts fail since the word does indeed seem to imply a level of coercion, force and oftentimes violence. All this is even before the Fall given the use in Genesis 1:28 above, unless it is predictive of the post-Fall struggle against thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:18) and a time when animals will become wild and no longer come before Adam willingly for naming.

Numbers 32:22,29, Joshua 18:1 and 1 Chronicles 22:18 speak of the land being subdued before the Israelites. This is not mere farming but a clearing out of the existing owners through military might. 2 Samuel 8:11 extends this idea to whole nations. Jeremiah 34:11,16 speaks of bringing people into subjection as slaves, as do 2 Chronicles 28:10 and Nehemiah 5:5. These uses could simply mean to take possession of and would equally apply to Genesis 1:28. God says to Moses and Joshua "Every place where you tread your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon" (Deuteronomy 11:24; Joshua 1:3).

Perhaps in Esther 7:8, the word would seem to include the possibility of physical or even sexual violence, of Haman's alleged assault of Esther. The similar Arabic root word can mean to force someone sexually.

כּבש kâbhash (Strong's #3533) seems to be similar to כּבס kâbhaç (Strong's #3526) "to tread or trample" and related to בּוס bûwç (Strong's #947) "to tread or trample with the feet". Ancient Akkadian had kabâsu "to tread down" and Arabic has kabasa "to tread, stamp, press". The syllable or word b-s becoming p-s or p-t in some languages often indicated something to with the feet, e.g., "path", Latin pes or ped, German fuß (ph-s) "foot". Equally the idea of hitting or trampling may be noted in the syllables b-t or b-sh as in "bat" or "bash". If this is the case a more neutral idea of "treading under foot" may be thought of, with Genesis 1:28 commanding man in the adjacent verbs to "fill" and "dominate" the earth through his "treading everywhere", occupying and building. These words either side of "subdue" certainly give the impression of מלא mâlê’ (Strong's #4390) "filling" and רדה râdhâh (Strong's #7287) "dominating/treading down".

Zechariah 9:15 speaks of God's shielding of the Israelites, "The LORD of hosts will defend them; They shall devour and subdue with slingstones". The JPS translation, however, reads "tread down the sling-stones" as if it is the opposition's sling-stones that are ineffective and fall under foot.

The idea of "being underfoot" is also seen in the derived noun כּבש kebhesh "footstool" (2 Chronicles 9:1).

So, perhaps we have come full circle and the word is a neutral term for "treading under foot" which could be taken positively of filling the earth or negatively of possessing a nation's land or its peoples through occupation and slavery. The most positive application comes in its penultimate biblical use in Micah 7:19 when God says that he will tread underfoot, squash and disregard our sins, rendered "subdue" by most versions but by "tread underfoot" in the NIV:

"He will again have compassion on us,
And will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea."

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