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shebanq

שֹׁ֫קֶת – drinking-trough

Semantic Fields: Containers   
Author(s): Bas ter Haar Romeny, Raymond de Hoop *
First published: 2026-03-31
Citation: Bas ter Haar Romeny, Raymond de Hoop, שֹׁ֫קֶת – drinking-trough,
               Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database (sahd-online.com), 2026 WORK IN PROGRESS

Introduction

Grammatical type: n.f.
Occurrences: 2x HB (2/0/0); 0x Sir; 1x Qum; 0x Inscr. (Total: 3).

  • Torah: Gen 24:20; 30:38;
  • Qum: 3Q15.10:16.

1. Root and Comparative Material

A.1 שֹׁ֫קֶת is derived from √ שׁקה, ‘to give to drink, to provide water’.1a

A.1: Arabic has sāqiya, which may be considered cognate. This word refers to ‘a rivulet, or streamlet, for the irrigation of seed-produce; a small channel for the irrigation of land’.1

A.2 Aramaic: Syriac has ܫܩܝܬܐ (šāqyetā) (feminine emph.), meaning ‘canal’ and ‘female cupbearer’.2 The same word is found in plural שקייתא (sg. שקי), ‘trough’ in TgPsJ Gen 30:38.3 Compare the masculine form ܫܩܝܐ (šeqyā), ‘watering’, ‘irrigation’, ‘watercourse’, etc.4 This is the שָׁקֵי, emph. שָׁקְיָא, of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Onqelos.5 This is probably also the same word as the šqy attested in Official Aramaic and Palmyrene.6 In other forms of Aramaic, a form of the root šqy with preformative mem is used. Thus in addition to אשקהו, Samaritan Aramaic has משקי,7 which is already attested in Old Aramaic.8

A.3 Post-Biblical Hebrew: The word שוקת is used in 3Q15 (3QCopper Scroll) 10:16 for a channel, or `water-outlet’.8a The word also occurs in halakhic sources concerning the validness of miqwaʾot: according to mMiq. 4:5 and 5:1, a trough hewn in the rock --as opposed to one that is fixed to the ground and should be considered a vessel--, does not make a miqwe invalid; cf. also mPar. 5:7--6:3 and bSukk. 37a. In tPar. 5:99 a trough is described, which is surrounded by holes or cavities that are linked to the main trough. It is clear from these instances that the word could refer to different forms of troughs, constructed in various ways from different materials. In all instances mentioned, the word שוקת is used for an object that holds water, without reference to watering livestock.10

2. Formal Characteristics

A.1 שֹׁ֫קֶת is a qul formation of the root שׁקה.11

3. Syntagmatics

A.1 שֹׁ֫קֶת occurs as nomen regens of:

  • מַיִם, ‘water’ in Gen 30:38.

A.2 שֹׁ֫קֶת is used in a prep. construction with בְּ:

  • בְּשִֽׁקֲתוֹת in Gen 30:38.

4. Ancient Versions

a. Septuagint (LXX) and other Greek versions (αʹ, σʹ, θʹ):

  • ποτιστήριον, ‘drinking-trough for cattle’:12 Gen 24:20LXX; 30:38LXX.

b. Peshitta (Pesh):

  • ܫܩܝܐ (šeqyā), ‘watering, irrigation, watercourse, etc.’:13 Gen 24:20;
  • ܒܝܬ ܡܫܬܝܐ (bet maštyā), ‘drinking place’:14 Gen 30:38.

c. Targumim (Tg: O/PsJ/N/Smr):

  • אשקהו, ‘watering trough’:15 Gen 24:20SmrA;
  • בית שקיא, ‘trough’:16 Gen 24:20O; 30:38O;
  • בית שקתי, ‘trough, watering place’: Gen 24:20PsJ;17
  • מורכי, ‘trough’:18 Gen 24:20PsN;19
  • משקי, ‘watering trough’:20 Gen 24:20SmrJ; 30:38SmrAJ;
  • שקיא, ‘trough’:21 Gen 30:38N;
  • שקיתא, ‘trough’:22 Gen 30:38PsJ;

d. Vulgate (Vg):

  • canalis, ‘pipe, groove, channel, etc.’:23 Gen 24:20;
  • ubi effundebatur aqua, ‘where the water is poured out’: Gen 30:38.

5. Lexical/Semantic Fields

A.1 שֹׁ֫קֶת belongs to the semantic field of ‘containers’ within the domain of ‘shepherding’ in the domain ‘events’.

6. Exegesis

A.1 The meaning of the word שֹׁ֫קֶת is ‘drinking-trough, watering channel’.24 Gen 24:20 tells us how Rebekah, Laban’s sister, emptied her jar (כַּדָּהּ, → כַּד) into the trough (אֶל־הַשֹׁקֶת) and ran again to the well (הַבְּאֵר) to draw water for the camels of Abraham’s servant, who had been sent out to find a wife for Isaac. This is the only place where a word for ‘drinking-trough’ is found in singular. Since drinking-troughs are usually referred to in plural, they were often found in groups near a well of cistern.25 In this case, אֶל־הַשֹׁקֶת should perhaps be interpreted as ‘into one of the troughs’. The trough in question was positioned at the top of the stairs which gave access to the source, which was located at the bottom of a pit (cf. v. 16). The biblical text does not allow conclusions with regard to the exact form or the material the troughs were made of.26 Dalman has seen troughs made from leather, which can be taken to the next well; but the usual arrangement, he concedes, is a trough dug out in the soil, cut out in the rocky bottom, or built from stones.27 He found them in round and rectangular shapes, but also in the form of a gutter, up to six meters in length. The latter form would allow more animals to drink at the same time.

A.2 The second occurrence of the word שֹׁ֫קֶת may actually refer to the very same place as where Rebekah met Abraham’s servant. After Jacob had arranged with Laban that he could take all the spotted and striped animals from the flocks, he took fresh rods of poplar, almond, and plane, and peeled white streaks in them. Then in Gen 30:38 it says that he set the rods that he had peeled ‘in the troughs, in the watering-places, where the flocks came to drink (בָּרֳהָטִים בְּשִׁקֲתוֹת הַמָּיִם אֲשֶׁר תָּבֹאןָ הַצֹּאן לִשְׁתּוֹת) in front of the flocks’. As the animals bred when they came to drink, they did so in front of the striped rods, which resulted in young that were striped and spotted. שֹׁ֫קֶת is added here as an explanation of the synonym → רַהַט, which is probably an Aramaic loanword. --- Another synonym is מַשְׁאָב.28

7. Conclusions

A.1 שֹׁ֫קֶת is a synonym of → רַהַט and מַשְׁאָב, and refers to the kind of drinking-troughs that were found near wells or cisterns, which were constructed in the first place in order to water livestock. On the basis of modern examples, we may assume that they were dug out in the soil, cut out in the rocky bottom, or built from stones. The fact that the Arabic cognate refers to some sort of a channel, might suggest that a שֹׁ֫קֶת was built in the form of a gutter, rather than in a round or square shape.

Bibliography

For the abbreviations see the List of Abbreviations.

Reymond 1958
Philippe Reymond, L’eau, sa vie, et sa signification dans l’Ancien Testament (SVT, 6), Leiden: Brill.

Notes

This article is based on an unpublished paper by Bas ter Haar Romeny, originally written for the KLY-project. For the publication in Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database the paper was thoroughly reworked and expanded by Raymond de Hoop.

  1. HALOT, 1639; Ges18, 1407. ↩

  2. According to Lane, vol. 1.4, 1386. ↩

  3. Sokoloff, SLB, 1594. In fact, Wehr, 485, adds ‘barmaid’ to Lane’s definition; it is not impossible that this meaning was already current in Classical Arabic. ↩

  4. Sokoloff, DJPA, 564. The word is listed erroneously under שַׁקְיָא/שִׁיקְיָא in Jastrow, DTT, 1622; Levy, CWT, vol. 2, 511 (‘die Tränkrinnen’). ↩

  5. Payne Smith, CSD, 593; Sokoloff, SLB, 1594. ↩

  6. Levy, CWT, vol. 2, 511; WTM, vol. 4, 602: ‘Mundschenk’. ↩

  7. The lemma šqy2 in DNWSI, 1186-87: ‘cup-bearer, irrigator’. ↩

  8. Tal, DSA, 925: ‘watering-trough’ for both forms. ↩

  9. Tell Fekheriye 3; DNWSI, 705: ‘watering place’. ↩

  10. DSS.SE 1:238-39. ↩

  11. Ed. Rengstorf [Lisowsky], Toharot, 201. ↩

  12. The use of the word in GenR. 73:10 (ed. Theodor-Albeck, 854) in two witnesses, is derived from Gen 30:38; the edition follows most witnesses in reading בריכות, ‘ponds, lakes’ (Jastrow, DTT, 194). ↩

  13. BL, 451, §61.l; Ges18, 1411. ↩

  14. LSJ, 1455 ↩

  15. Payne Smith, CSD, 593; Sokoloff, SLB, 1594. Payne Smith, TS, 4282, interprets the word at this place as ‘canalis’; the usual meanings are ‘irrigatio’ and ‘potus’; LSyr, 798, correctly gives only the latter two meanings, and interprets the word at this place as ‘potus’. ↩

  16. Payne Smith, TS, 490: ‘locus quo aquatum eunt greges, Angl. a place for watering cattle’; elsewhere also ‘convivium’, cf. p. 4351; LSyr, 71: ‘locus aquationis’ (ܡܫܬܝܐ (maštyā) = ‘potus’). ↩

  17. Tal, DSA, 925; SP reads השקות. ↩

  18. Jastrow, DTT, 1622. Levy, CWT, 2, 511: ‘die Tränkrinne’ (שקיא = ‘das Tränken’). ↩

  19. See next note. ↩

  20. Jastrow, DTT, 750; Sokoloff, DJPA, 296. ↩

  21. TgPsJ renders here למורכיוות בית־שׁקתי, ‘to the troughs of the watering place’. ↩

  22. Tal, DSA, 925; SP reads השקות. ↩

  23. DJPA, 564; Jastrow, DTT, 1622. ↩

  24. DJPA, 564 (cf. n. 3, above). ↩

  25. Lewis & Short, LD, 276. ↩

  26. Gesenius, TPC, 1474: (‘aquarium, lacus s. canalis potatorius’); BDB, 1052; GB, 862f.: (‘Tränkrinnen’); HAWAT, 562 (idem); KBL, 1010: (idem); Reymond 1958:142-43, 271 (‘abreuvoir’); Zorell, 881 (‘potatorium; quidam velut canalis, ex quo pecus aquam potat’) HAL, 1522; HALOT, 1650; DCH viii:559 (‘trough, perh. channel for watering livestock’); Ges18, 1411. ↩

  27. Pointed out by Reymond 1958:142-43. ↩

  28. Contrast those, who suggest a certain material: see Gesenius, TPC, 1474: (‘lacus s. canalis potatorius e ligno lapidere inciso et excavato factus’); GB, 862f.: ‘Tränkrinnen, hölzerne od. steinerne’; Ges18, 1411 (idem). ↩

  29. Dalman, AuS, vol. 6, 269-70. ↩

  30. Dalman, AuS, vol. 6, 275. ↩

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