Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

To Slay a Victim

Shachath (שׂחט , Assyrian sakhatu), to kill or slay, is first found in Genesis 22:10, ' and Abraham stretched forth his h and and took the knife to slay his son.' The only other place in Genes is where it occurs is in Genesis 37:31, ' and they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood.' It is used of the killing of the Passover Lamb in Exodus 12:6, &c., and in the directions for sacrifices it constantly occurs. It is rendered offer in Exodus 34:25, 'Thou shalt not offer the blood of any sacrifice with leaven.'

In Judges 12:6, it is applied to the slaughter of men; also in 1 Kings 18:40, where the slaughter of the priests of Baal is referred to; see also 2 Kings 10:7; 2 Kings 10:14; 2 Kings 25:7; Jeremiah 39:6; Jeremiah 41:7; Jeremiah 52:10 in Isaiah 57:5, the slaughter of children in the valleys was probably sacrificial, to propitiate false gods, as in Ezekiel 23:39, and perhaps Hosea 5:2.

The general rendering for the word in the LXX is σφάζω, but in a few passages we find θύω.

According to the Received Text, in Revelation 5:6 we read of a lamb as it were slain (ἐσφαγμένον); the fruits, if not the outward marks, of sacrifice abiding in the exalted Saviour (compare Revelation 5:9; Revelation 5:12; Revelation 13:8).