שֹׁ֫רֶשׁ
she.resh (H8328)
root
AI Word Study
# שֹׁ֫רֶשׁ (Sheresh): Root The Hebrew word *sheresh* denotes a root—the underground portion of a plant that anchors it to soil and draws nourishment. This literal botanical meaning appears to be the primary sense of the term across its 33 biblical occurrences. The word functions as a concrete noun referring to the physical plant structures that remain when vegetation is cut down or destroyed, making it semantically useful for describing both agricultural contexts and metaphorical situations involving growth, stability, or devastation. Given the word's consistent reference to actual plant roots, biblical authors likely employed *sheresh* to convey ideas about foundation, origin, and resilience. A plant's root system determines its survival and vitality, making the term naturally evocative of concepts like permanence, continuity, and the fundamental sources from which things grow. The frequency of occurrence (33 times) suggests the word held regular communicative value rather than being rare or specialized terminology. The significance of *sheresh* lies in its capacity to bridge the literal and conceptual: by describing what anchors plants physically, the word could extend to describe what anchors people, nations, or traditions to their foundations. This semantic flexibility made it available for both straightforward descriptive purposes and more resonant figurative speech about origins and stability.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from Yahweh our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison;
Those whose root is in Amalek came out of Ephraim, after you, Benjamin, among your peoples. Governors come down out of Machir. Those who handle the marshal’s staff came out of Zebulun.
The remnant that has escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
His roots are wrapped around the rock pile. He sees the place of stones.
You also put my feet in the stocks, and mark all my paths. You set a bound to the soles of my feet,
Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground,
His roots will be dried up beneath. His branch will be cut off above.
If you say, ‘How we will persecute him!’ because the root of the matter is found in me,
He puts his hand on the flinty rock, and he overturns the mountains by the roots.
My root is spread out to the waters. The dew lies all night on my branch.
They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom tree are their food.
Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea.
A man shall not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous shall not be moved.
The wicked desires the plunder of evil men, but the root of the righteous flourishes.
Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as the dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust, because they have rejected the law of Yahweh of Armies, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit.
It will happen in that day that the nations will seek the root of Jesse, who stands as a banner of the peoples; and his resting place will be glorious.
Don’t rejoice, O Philistia, all of you, because the rod that struck you is broken; for out of the serpent’s root an adder will emerge, and his fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.
The firstborn of the poor will eat, and the needy will lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and your remnant will be killed.
The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
For he will be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and will not be concerned in the year of drought. It won’t cease from yielding fruit.
It grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and its roots were under him. So it became a vine, produced branches, and shot out sprigs.
“ ‘ “There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers. Behold, this vine bent its roots toward him, and shot out its branches toward him, from the beds of its plantation, that he might water it.
“Say, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Will it prosper? Won’t he pull up its roots, and cut off its fruit, that it may wither; that all its fresh springing leaves may wither? It can’t be raised from its roots by a strong arm or many people.
Thus it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters.
“But out of a shoot from her roots one will stand up in his place, who will come to the army, and will enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and will deal against them, and will prevail.
Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.”
I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon.
Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.
“For, behold, the day comes, it burns as a furnace; and all the proud, and all who work wickedness, will be stubble; and the day that comes will burn them up,” says Yahweh of Armies, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.