shav.ah denotes an urgent outcry, especially one raised in distress and directed toward God for hearing or rescue.

The attested use is a distressed outcry: it is raised from oppression, affliction, or danger and is presented as reaching God or being heard by him. The same use can describe a city's outcry and the outcry of the people in the land.

1. Distressed outcry seeking response · dominant

   All supplied forms are feminine singular construct nouns. In Exodus 2:23, the outcry rises to God from Israel's service; in 2 Samuel 22:7, it reaches God's ears amid distress; and in Psalm 145:19 the APB renders the clause "he hears their cry and saves them." The term also marks communal lament: in 1 Samuel 5:12 the APB renders "the cry of the city," and in Jeremiah 8:19, "the cry of the daughter of my people."

   Exodus 2:232 Samuel 22:7Psalm 145:19Lamentations 3:561 Samuel 5:12Jeremiah 8:19

In the Anselm Project Bible: Where the clause is explicit, the APB presents the noun as "cry," including cries that rise to God, reach his ears, or are heard before deliverance. In several supplied verses, such as Psalm 18:7 and Psalm 40:2, the translation gives the surrounding outcome without an explicit English equivalent.