Bible word study

Shave (Strong’s H7723): Meaning in the Bible

Shave (שָׁוְא) is the Hebrew word numbered H7723 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as evil (as destructive), literally (ruin) or morally (especially guile); figuratively idolatry (as false, subjective), uselessness (as deceptive, objective; also adverbially, in vain). In the King James Bible it is translated false(-ly), lie, lying, vain, vanity..

• Original wordשָׁוְא
• Transliterationshâvᵉʼ
• Pronunciationshawv
• Part of speechnoun (masculine) (n-m)
• Strong’s numberH7723
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. or שַׁו; from the same as H7722 in the sense of desolating;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Shave appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Shave (H7723) stands behind 53 English renderings in 48 verses across 13 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Psalms (15), Ezekiel (9), Job (6).

How the King James Bible renders Shave, by count

• vain22 of 53 (42 percent)
• vanity22 of 53 (42 percent)
• false5 of 53 (9 percent)
• lying2 of 53 (4 percent)
• falsely1 of 53 (2 percent)
• lies1 of 53 (2 percent)

Three places to read Shave

• Exodus 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
• Psalms 108:12 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
• Jeremiah 46:11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Shave in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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