Lexicon
שַׁכּוּל
shak.kul
H7909
H:A Hebrew

childless

6
Occurrences
5
Books
Hebrew
Language

shak.kul describes someone or an animal deprived of offspring, whether by loss or by having none.

The adjective describes deprivation of offspring: it characterizes bears robbed of cubs, wives left without children, and ewes among whom none has lost its young.

Senses in use

  1. Deprived of offspring or young · dominant

    The masculine singular form describes a bear in 2 Samuel 17:8, Hosea 13:8, and Proverbs 17:12; in each verse the APB renders the comparison as a bear “robbed of her cubs.” The feminine plural in Jeremiah 18:21 occurs in the plea that wives become “childless,” while the feminine singular in Song of Songs 4:2 and Song of Songs 6:6 describes the absence of any ewe that “has lost its young.”

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB presents the adjective through “robbed of her cubs” in the bear comparisons, “childless” for wives, and “has lost its young” for the ewes. These are verse-level renderings rather than definitions.

Passages featuring this word

Across Scripture