Spoil
שָׁלָלStrong’s H7998shalal (sha-lal)
Appears in 64 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Shalal is the Hebrew word usually translated “plunder”, “booty of” and “booty”. It appears in 64 verses of the Old Testament.
“He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers’ fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.”
Meaning
- Prey, plunder, spoil, bootyprey · booty, spoil, plunder (of war) · plunder (private) · gain (meaning uncertain)
How it's translated
- plunder 18
- the plunder 6
- to plunder 5
- booty of 4
- the booty 4
- and booty of 3
- plunder its 3
- plunder of 3
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- 1 Samuel 9
- Isaiah 7
- 2 Chronicles 6
- Jeremiah 6
- Joshua 5
- Deuteronomy 4
19 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Zechariah 2:9In contextFor, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.
- Zechariah 14:1In contextBehold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
- Genesis 49:27Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.
- Exodus 15:9The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
- Numbers 31:11And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.
- Numbers 31:12And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
All 64 verses, by book
Hebrew dictionary
שָׁלָל shalal · spoil
1) prey, plunder, spoil, booty 1a) prey 1b) booty, spoil, plunder (of war) 1c) plunder (private) 1d) gain (meaning uncertain)
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “spoil” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
SPOIL, verb transitive
[Latin, to pull asunder, to tear, to strip, to peel.]
- To plunder; to strip by violence; to rob; with of; as, to spoil one of his goods or possessions.
- To seize by violence; to take by force; as, to spoil ones goods.
- To corrupt; to cause to decay and perish.
- To corrupt; to vitiate; to mar.
All definitions and other forms of “spoil”
- To ruin; to destroy.
- To render useless by injury; as, to spoil paper by wetting it.
- To injure fatally; as, to spoil the eyes by reading.
SPOIL, verb intransitive
- To practice plunder or robbery.
- To decay; to lose the valuable qualities; to be corrupted; as, fruit will soon spoil in warm weather.
SPOIL, noun
[Latin]
- That which is taken from others by violence; particularly in war, the plunder taken from an enemy; pillage; booty.
- That which is gained by strength or effort.
- That which is taken from another without license.
- The act or practice of plundering; robbery; waste.
- Corruption; cause of corruption.
- The slough or cast skin of a serpent or other animal.
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.