שָׁכֵן
sha.khen (H7934)
neighboring
AI Word Study
# Šākhēn (H7934): The Hebrew Word for "Neighboring" The Hebrew word *šākhēn* carries the primary meaning of "neighboring," referring to spatial proximity and the relationship between adjacent parties. With twenty occurrences in the biblical text, this relatively modest frequency suggests it functioned as a specialized term for describing geographic or relational closeness rather than serving as an everyday vocabulary item. The word appears consistently throughout the Hebrew Bible in contexts where proximity and adjacency are significant. The significance of *šākhēn* lies in its role in establishing social and territorial boundaries. By identifying "neighbors"—those who share proximity—the word helps structure how ancient Hebrew writers conceptualized community relationships and land divisions. This term would have carried practical importance in a context where neighboring peoples, territories, and households required clear identification and distinction. The modest number of occurrences suggests that while the concept of neighborliness mattered in biblical discourse, it was not a dominant theme requiring frequent repetition. Without access to the specific passages where *šākhēn* appears, the full range of its contextual applications cannot be detailed here. However, the definition indicates that whenever ancient biblical writers needed to identify entities defined primarily by their spatial relationship to something else, this was the appropriate Hebrew term they employed.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
But every woman shall ask of her neighbor, and of her who visits her house, jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing. You shall put them on your sons, and on your daughters. You shall plunder the Egyptians.”
and if the household is too little for a lamb, then he and his neighbor next to his house shall take one according to the number of the souls. You shall make your count for the lamb according to what everyone can eat.
Turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the places near there: in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South, by the seashore, in the land of the Canaanites, and in Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
The women, her neighbors, gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi”. They named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Then he said, “Go, borrow empty containers from all your neighbors. Don’t borrow just a few containers.
Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the street fled from me.
You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us.
We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord.
You make us a source of contention to our neighbors. Our enemies laugh among themselves.
All who pass by the way rob him. He has become a reproach to his neighbors.
Don’t forsake your friend and your father’s friend. Don’t go to your brother’s house in the day of your disaster. A neighbor who is near is better than a distant brother.
The inhabitant won’t say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.
Therefore Yahweh says, “Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. The fathers and the sons together will stumble against them. The neighbor and his friend will perish.”
Yahweh says, “Concerning all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.
But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he will not be able to hide himself. His offspring is destroyed, with his brothers and his neighbors; and he is no more.
As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says Yahweh, “no man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein.
As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says Yahweh, “so no man will dwell there, neither will any son of man live therein.
You have also committed sexual immorality with the Egyptians, your neighbors, great of flesh; and have multiplied your prostitution, to provoke me to anger.
The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.