sho.ah denotes overwhelming ruin that comes upon people or marks a desolate, wasted setting.

The attested use chiefly depicts ruin as a threatening event that comes upon people, armies, or a day of calamity; in a smaller group of verses it describes the devastated or waste setting associated with deprivation and barren ground.

1. Overwhelming ruin coming upon people · dominant

   The feminine singular noun appears in clauses where ruin arrives or overtakes its target: in Ezekiel 38:9 the APB renders an advancing force as coming “like devastation” to cover the land, and in Isaiah 47:11 it renders a sudden calamity that comes upon its hearer. In Proverbs 1:27 and Psalm 35:8, the surrounding clauses likewise portray dread or a hidden net ending in ruin.

   Ezekiel 38:9Isaiah 10:3Isaiah 47:11Proverbs 1:27Proverbs 3:25Psalm 35:8
2. Devastated or waste terrain · occasional

   In Job 30:3, the feminine singular absolute form occurs in a scene of people gnawing dry ground amid devastation and desolation. In Job 38:27, it belongs to the description of waste, desolate land that is made to sprout with grass.

   Job 30:3Job 38:27

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB variously uses “devastation,” “desolation,” and “disaster” in these verses, especially for calamity that comes upon someone or for waste land. Those English variations do not establish separate meanings for the Hebrew noun.