to release
sha.mat denotes releasing or letting go, including loans, land, persons, and what slips from possession.
The attested uses most often concern a release from control or claim: a person is commanded to be released and judges are described as released. The term also marks setting aside a loan or cultivated land, while parallel accounts of stumbling oxen and the loss of an inheritance show what is let slip or relinquished.
Senses in use
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Releasing persons from restraint · dominant
In 2 Kings 9:33, the Qal imperative addresses a plural group with the command that the APB renders, “Release her.” In Psalm 141:6, the Niphal perfect describes judges whom the APB says “have been released by the hands of the rock.”
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Setting aside a claim or use · common
In Deuteronomy 15:2, the Qal infinitive absolute occurs in the instruction that every lender shall release what was lent to a neighbor; Deuteronomy 15:3 continues with a Hiphil jussive concerning what is with a brother. In Exodus 23:11, the Qal imperfect occurs in the seventh-year instruction that the land be left fallow and abandoned for the needy and wild animals.
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Letting slip or losing possession · common
In 2 Samuel 6:6 and 1 Chronicles 13:9, the Qal perfect plural occurs in the clauses explaining why Uzzah reached toward the ark, with the APB rendering that the oxen “had stumbled.” In Jeremiah 17:4, a Qal sequential perfect accompanies the announcement that the addressee will be dispossessed of the inheritance given to him.
In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB uses “Release” for the command in 2 Kings 9:33 and “released” in Psalm 141:6, while it describes loan remission, fallow land, stumbling oxen, and dispossession in other contexts. These renderings confirm the clauses' overall situations rather than supply a separate definition for each occurrence.