To cleave
שָׁסַעStrong’s H8156shasa (sha-sa)
Appears in 8 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Shasa is the Hebrew word usually translated “cleaves”, “tear apart” and “cleaving”. It appears in 8 verses of the Old Testament.
“And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder: and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.”
Meaning
- To divide, cleave, part, split(Qal) cleaving, cleft (participle) · (Piel) to tear in two, cleave in two
How it's translated
- and cleaves 2
- and he will tear apart 1
- and cleaving 1
- cleaving 1
- cloven 1
- and he tore apart it 1
- as tears apart 1
- and he reprimanded 1
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Leviticus 4
- Deuteronomy 2
- Judges 1
- 1 Samuel 1
4 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Leviticus 11:3Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.
- Leviticus 11:7And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.
- Leviticus 11:26The carcases of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not clovenfooted, nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you: every one that toucheth them shall be unclean.
- Deuteronomy 14:6And every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat.
- Deuteronomy 14:7Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the cloven hoof; as the camel, and the hare, and the coney: for they chew the cud, but divide not the hoof; therefore they are unclean unto you.
- Judges 14:6And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand: but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.
Hebrew dictionary
שָׁסַע shasa · to cleave
1) to divide, cleave, part, split 1a) (Qal) cleaving, cleft (participle) 1b) (Piel) to tear in two, cleave in two
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “cleave” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
CLEAVE, verb intransitive
- To stick; to adhere; to hold to.“My bones cleave to my skin” Psalms 102:5“Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth” Psalms 137:6“CLEAVE to that which is good” Romans 12:9
- To unite aptly; to fit; to sit well on.
- To unite or be united closely in interest or affection; to adhere with strong attachment.“A man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife. Math. 19” Genesis 2:24
All definitions and other forms of “cleave”
CLEAVE, verb transitive
- To part or divide by force; to split or rive; to open or serve the cohering parts of a body, by cutting or by the application of force; as, to cleave wood; to cleave a rock; to cleave the flood.
- To part or open naturally.“Every beast that cleaveth the cleft into two claws” Deuteronomy 14:6
CLEAVE, verb intransitive
To part; to open; to crack; to separate, as parts of cohering bodies; as, the ground cleaves by frost.
- “The mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof” Zechariah 14:4
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.