Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

''shâv''’ - שָוְא (Strong's #7723)
Worthless'

The word שָוְא shâv'’ (Strong's #7723, x53) is translated by "vain" or "vanity" 44 of its 53 uses in the KJV but just 21 times in the NAS which chooses to use "false" or "deceitful" 25 times instead to the KJV's 9 uses of "false" or "lies/lying". Which emphasis is more accurate?

The root verb is presumed to be שוֹא shôv’ with possibly two separate ideas; firstly of making a noise, destroying and laying waste; and secondly of being evil or worthless. The two could be reasonable reconciled or combined in the idea of the evil act of rendering something as worthless, such as destroying a structure or even someone's reputation.

The first use of שָוְא shâv'’ is in the famous decalogue of Exodus 20:7, "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain..." (cf. Deuteronomy 5:11). The very next use, however, is in Exodus 23:1, "You shall not raise a false report..." (cf. Deuteronomy 5:20, "do not bear false witness against your neighbour"). Is this dual use of the same word the same as blasphemy?

In English, the term "blasphemy" only occurs in one instance in the Hebrew bible, mentioned by Hezekiah in Isaiah 37:3 // 2 Kings 19:3 during the invasion by Sennacherib. A more obvious use is in Nehemiah 9:18,26 referring back to the golden calf incident and described as a provocation, but essentially it was idolatry. All these uses are of a different word to our "vain, worthless, false". It is נְאָצָה n’âtsâh (Strong's #5007, x5) from נָאָץ nâ’âts (Strong's #5006, x27) "to despise".

It is interesting that outside of the two references in Exodus both essentially repeated in Deuteronomy, the word שָוְא shâv'’ does not occur again in the Pentateuch nor the historical books. It is next met with in the wisdom literature of Job and Psalms, in the major prophets and some 5 instances amongst the minor prophets: Hosea, Jonah, Zechariah and Malachi.

Fortunately, the poetic works offer us some parallelisms of usage. We find שָוְא shâv'’ occurring in poetic parallelism with:

Isaiah echoes some of the same parallelisms as above when he writes:

"No one calls for justice, Nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies; They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity." (Isaiah 59:4, NKJV)

Here he uses עָמַל ‘âmâl "evil" and אָוְן ’âven "iniquity", but the word translated "lies" is our שָוְא shâv'’, whilst the word for "empty" ("vanity" in some translations) is actually תּהוּ tôhûw (Strong's #8414), as used in Genesis 1:2 of the earth's formless and void state.

In Jeremiah 18:15 שָוְא shâv'’ has become virtually synonymous with "idol" and stands for it in the phrase "they have burned incense to vanity/worthlessness".

Ezekiel uses the word to describe lying and empty visions fo false prophets and diviners (Ezekiel 12:24; 13:6-9,23; 21:23,29; 22:28).

Perhaps one of the most familiar verses using שָוְא shâv'’ is "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it" (Psalm 127:1), this pointlessness is also seen in Malachi 3:14, "...it is vain to serve God, what was the point/profit in keeping his will...?".

Thus, שָוְא shâv'’ covers a range of meaning from falsehood to wickedness and the English translation "do not take the Lord's name in vain" is a bit limp and could better be rendered "do not treat God's name falsely or wickedly", thereby making it worthless, e.g., by making a false oath in his name, or attributing evil to him, either of which destroy God's reputation.

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