sha.var denotes breaking things apart, and can also describe bodies, military power, restraints, or hearts as broken.

The verb most often denotes forcefully breaking material things such as tablets, pillars, images, rocks, doors, and branches. It also describes persons, armies, kingdoms, and ships being broken or brought down; the breaking of bars, yokes, arms, and food supply; and, in limited contexts, a broken heart or the speaker's being broken by an unfaithful heart.

1. Breaking or smashing physical objects · dominant

   Piel forms describe deliberate action against tangible objects: in Deuteronomy 9:17 the speaker throws down and breaks the two tablets, while Deuteronomy 12:3 commands the breaking of pillars. In 1 Kings 19:11 the active participle occurs as the wind shatters rocks, and 2 Chronicles 34:4 places the action among the destruction and crushing of cultic objects.

   Deuteronomy 9:17Deuteronomy 12:31 Kings 19:112 Chronicles 34:4Isaiah 45:2Isaiah 27:11
2. Being broken down or defeated · common

   Niphal forms portray entities undergoing a destructive collapse: in Daniel 8:8 the great horn is broken and four horns arise in its place, and Daniel 11:4 says that a kingdom will be broken and divided. The same pattern appears with wrecked ships in 2 Chronicles 20:37 and with armies that are swept away and broken in Daniel 11:22.

   Daniel 8:8Daniel 11:4Daniel 11:222 Chronicles 20:37Ezekiel 27:34Daniel 8:25
3. Removing strength, restraint, or support · occasional

   The verb is used for things that sustain or constrain: Amos 1:5 speaks of breaking Damascus's bar, and Ezekiel 34:27 of breaking the bars of a yoke before rescue from enslavers. Ezekiel 14:13 and Ezekiel 4:16 place the action in clauses about the staff or supply of bread, while Ezekiel 30:21 presents Pharaoh's arm as broken and unable to grasp a sword.

   Amos 1:5Ezekiel 34:27Ezekiel 14:13Ezekiel 4:16Ezekiel 30:21Ezekiel 30:18
4. Injury or destruction of a living body · occasional

   In 1 Samuel 4:18, a Niphal sequential imperfect occurs in the report that the man's neck was broken after his fall. In 1 Kings 13:26 the lion breaks and kills the man of God, while Isaiah 38:13 describes a lion breaking all the speaker's bones.

   1 Samuel 4:181 Kings 13:26Isaiah 38:13Exodus 12:46Ezekiel 29:7
5. A broken inner condition · rare

   Isaiah 61:1 uses a Niphal participle in the phrase the APB renders "the brokenhearted," alongside binding up and proclaiming liberty. In Ezekiel 6:9, the APB renders the clause "I was broken by their fornicating heart," so the precise English contribution of the form is less isolated there.

   Isaiah 61:1Ezekiel 6:9

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly uses "break" or "broken," but also presents the result as "shattering," "wrecked," "crushed," or "destroyed" in different clauses. Because its English is a whole-verse translation, those variations show the verse context rather than separate fixed renderings of the lemma.