Bible word study

Shaliysh (Strong’s H7991): Meaning in the Bible

Shaliysh (שָׁלִישׁ) is the Hebrew word numbered H7991 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as a triple, i.e. (as a musical instrument) a triangle (or perhaps rather three-stringed lute); also (as an indefinite, great quantity) a three-fold measure (perhaps a treble ephah); also (as an officer) a general of the third rank (upward, i.e. the highest). In the King James Bible it is translated captain, instrument of musick, (great) lord, (great) measure, prince.

• Original wordשָׁלִישׁ
• Transliterationshâlîysh
• Pronunciationshaw-leesh'
• Part of speechnoun (masculine) (n-m)
• Strong’s numberH7991
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. or שָׁלוֹשׁ; (1 Chronicles 11:11; 1 Chronicles 12:18), or שָׁלֹשׁ; (2 Samuel 23:13), from H7969;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Shaliysh appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Shaliysh (H7991) stands behind 19 English renderings in 18 verses across 11 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in 2 Kings (7), Exodus (2), Ezekiel (2).

How the King James Bible renders Shaliysh, by count

• captains8 of 19 (42 percent)
• lord3 of 19 (16 percent)
• captain2 of 19 (11 percent)
• measure2 of 19 (11 percent)
• lords1 of 19 (5 percent)
• musick1 of 19 (5 percent)

Three places to read Shaliysh

• Exodus 14:7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.
• 2 Kings 7:17 And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him.
• 2 Chronicles 8:9 But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and captains of his chariots and horsemen.

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 Shaliysh 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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