unintentionally
she.ga.gah denotes an inadvertent wrong or act, including offenses requiring remedy and unintentional killing.
The attested use chiefly marks wrongdoing done without intent in sacrificial and legal instructions, where guilt, atonement, forgiveness, or restitution follows. It also describes a person who kills without intent and may flee to a refuge city, while Ecclesiastes applies it to an error associated with a ruler and to an unfulfilled vow.
Senses in use
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Inadvertent wrongdoing requiring remedy · dominant
The feminine singular noun marks a prohibited act or offense treated as unintentional: in Leviticus 4:2 the APB renders a person sinning by doing what was commanded not to be done, and in Leviticus 22:14 it renders eating a holy thing without intent. In Leviticus 5:18, the construct form occurs in the clause about a wrong committed without knowledge and followed by atonement; Numbers 15:25 places the act in a setting of atonement and forgiveness.
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Killing without intent · common
In the refuge-city clauses, the feminine singular absolute noun qualifies the striking down of a life. In Joshua 20:3 the APB renders a murderer striking a soul “without knowledge” and fleeing from the avenger of blood; Numbers 35:15 likewise places the person who strikes down a life in the protection of a refuge city.
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An error in reflective observation · rare
Ecclesiastes uses the feminine singular absolute noun outside the sacrificial and refuge instructions. In Ecclesiastes 10:5 the APB renders a distress “like an unintentional error” coming from a domineering one; Ecclesiastes 5:5 places the form in a warning about making and not fulfilling a vow, though the translation does not isolate its contribution.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the legal and refuge passages, the APB repeatedly presents the clause with “unintentionally,” and Leviticus 5:18 adds “without knowing it.” In Ecclesiastes 10:5 it uses “unintentional error”; these are verse-level renderings rather than definitions.