Bible word study

Shamem (Strong’s H8074): Meaning in the Bible

Shamem (שָׁמֵם) is the Hebrew word numbered H8074 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to stun (or intransitively, grow numb), i.e. devastate or (figuratively) stupefy (both usually in a passive sense). In the King James Bible it is translated make amazed, be astonied, (be an) astonish(-ment), (be, bring into.

• Original wordשָׁמֵם
• Transliterationshâmêm
• Pronunciationshaw-mame'
• Part of speechverb (v)
• Strong’s numberH8074
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primitive root;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Shamem appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Shamem (H8074) stands behind 93 English renderings in 86 verses across 21 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Ezekiel (25), Jeremiah (11), Isaiah (10).

How the King James Bible renders Shamem, by count

• desolate49 of 93 (53 percent)
• astonished14 of 93 (15 percent)
• astonied6 of 93 (6 percent)
• waste5 of 93 (5 percent)
• desolations4 of 93 (4 percent)
• desolation3 of 93 (3 percent)

Three places to read Shamem

• Leviticus 26:22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
• Isaiah 54:3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
• Ezekiel 28:19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

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 Shamem 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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