Study
Word study

Word study

Hebrew

To shake

נוּעַStrong’s H5128

nua (nu-a)

Appears in 36 verses of the Old Testament

In short

Nua is the Hebrew word usually translated “sway”, “wanderer” and “has shaken”. It appears in 36 verses of the Old Testament.

“And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands.”
Daniel 10:10 KJV
Meaning
  1. To quiver, totter, shake, reel, stagger, wander, move, sift, make move, wave, waver, tremble(Qal) · (Niphal) to be tossed about or around · (Hiphil)
How it's translated
  • to sway 3
  • a wanderer 2
  • she has shaken 2
  • and i will shake 2
  • they shake 2
  • they wandered 2
  • and they trembled 1
  • and he made wander them 1

Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.

Where it's used most
  • Psalms 6
  • Isaiah 6
  • Judges 3
  • Lamentations 3
  • Amos 3
  • Genesis 2

17 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
Hebrew dictionary

נוּעַ nua · to shake

1) to quiver, totter, shake, reel, stagger, wander, move, sift, make move, wave, waver, tremble 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to wave, quiver, vibrate, swing, stagger, tremble, be unstable 1a2) to totter, go tottering 1a2a) vagabond (participle) 1b) (Niphal) to be tossed about or around 1c) (Hiphil) 1c1) to toss about 1c2) to shake, cause to totter 1c3) to shake, disturb 1c4) to cause to wander

From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

How the English word “shake” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.

SHAKE, verb transitive

preterit tense shook; participle passive shaken.

  1. To cause to move with quick vibrations; to move rapidly one way and the other; to agitate; as, the wind shakes a tree; an earthquake shakes the hills or the earth.“I shook my lap, and said, so God shake out every man from his house-” Nehemiah 5:13“-As a fig casteth her untimely fruit, when it is shaken of a mighty wind” Revelation 6:13
  2. To make to totter or tremble.
  3. To cause to shiver; as, an ague shakes the whole frame.
  4. To throw down by a violent motion.
All definitions and other forms of “shake”
  1. To throw away; to drive off.
  2. To move from firmness; to weaken the stability of; to endanger; to threaten to overthrow.
  3. To cause to waver or doubt; to impair the resolution of; to depress the courage of.“That ye be not soon shaken in mind” 2 Thessalonians 2:2
  4. To trill; as, to shake a note in music.

SHAKE, verb intransitive

  1. To be agitated with a waving or vibratory motion; as, the tree shakes with the wind; the house shakes in a tempest.“The foundations of the earth do shake” Isaiah 24:18
  2. To tremble; to shiver; to quake; as, a man shakes in an ague; or he shakes with cold, or with terror.
  3. To totter.

SHAKE, noun

  1. Concussion; a vacillating or wavering motion; a rapid motion one way and the other; agitation.
  2. A trembling or shivering; agitation.
  3. A motion of hands clasped.
  4. In music, a trill; a rapid reiteration of two notes comprehending an interval not greater than one whole tone, nor less than a semitone.

Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.

Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.