sa.val describes bearing or carrying a load, including burdens, iniquities, and bodily weight.

The attested use most often concerns bearing or carrying a burden: a shoulder is bent for labor, a figure is carried on shoulders, and iniquities are borne. Two further contexts portray weight borne in the body or movement, describing cattle as heavy with young and a locust dragging itself along.

1. Carrying burdens, loads, or iniquities · dominant

   In Genesis 49:15, the Qal infinitive construct occurs in the clause about bending a shoulder for forced labor. Qal forms in Isaiah 46:4, Isaiah 46:7, Isaiah 53:4, Isaiah 53:11, and Lamentations 5:7 occur where the APB renders carrying on a shoulder, bearing griefs and sorrows, bearing iniquities, or bearing the consequences of earlier sin.

   Genesis 49:15Isaiah 46:4Isaiah 46:7Isaiah 53:4Isaiah 53:11Lamentations 5:7
2. Being weighed down or moving under weight · occasional

   In Psalm 144:14, the Pual passive participle describes cattle in the clause the APB renders “heavy with young.” In Ecclesiastes 12:5, the Hithpael imperfect occurs in the sequence where the APB says that the locust “drags itself along.”

   Psalm 144:14Ecclesiastes 12:5

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly uses “bear” or “borne” in the burden-bearing clauses, while Isaiah 46:7 renders the surrounding action as carrying on a shoulder. In Psalm 144:14 and Ecclesiastes 12:5, it instead presents the results as “heavy with young” and a locust that “drags itself along”.