Bible word study

Shaphat (Strong’s H8199): Meaning in the Bible

Shaphat (שָׁפַט) is the Hebrew word numbered H8199 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to judge, i.e. pronounce sentence (for or against); by implication, to vindicate or punish; by extenssion, to govern; passively, to litigate (literally or figuratively). In the King James Bible it is translated avenge, contend, defend, execute (judgment), (be a) judge(-ment).

• Original wordשָׁפַט
• Transliterationshâphaṭ
• Pronunciationshaw-fat'
• Part of speechverb (v)
• Strong’s numberH8199
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primitive root;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Shaphat appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Shaphat (H8199) stands behind 203 English renderings in 182 verses across 31 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Psalms (32), Ezekiel (29), Judges (21).

How the King James Bible renders Shaphat, by count

• judge103 of 203 (51 percent)
• judges37 of 203 (18 percent)
• judged28 of 203 (14 percent)
• plead9 of 203 (4 percent)
• judgeth5 of 203 (2 percent)
• judging4 of 203 (2 percent)

Three places to read Shaphat

• Genesis 16:5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.
• 2 Samuel 18:31 And, behold, Cushi came; and Cushi said, Tidings, my lord the king: for the LORD hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee.
• Proverbs 31:9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

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 Shaphat 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.

Related words