sheb
שב
'sheb' has erroneously been given two Strongnumbers for the same word.
'sheb' (3427) consistently means “abide” though it ranges from “wait” to “dwell”
'sheb' (7725) seams to similarly mean “remained”, but it is usually translated as “returned”, and contextually this sometimes makes sense. However, there are a few cases where “stayed” appears to be a better translation. For example, Genesis 21 tells the story of Abraham and Abimelek king of Gerar making a treaty at Beersheba, in the province of Gerar. The original text seems to indicate that Abimelek (not Abraham) planted a tree at Beer Sheba. The use of the verb 'sheb' appears to indicate that both Abimelek and Abraham stayed in the area which the text refers to as “the land of the Philistines”. Since Abimelek, was in fact a philistine, and makes a point of allowing Abraham to stay within his land, there is littel reason to interpret Abimelech “returning” anywhere. He was already in his own territory.
A better interpretation might be to equate 'sheb' with “remained”. In this way, the word implies more about where the character remained after the action, rather than where he came from. This seems to satisfy the semantic load of both “returned” and “stayed” in setting the scene for the next plot point.
- unify the two Strongnumbers
This word might also be a root word for: esheb (herb), and shebar (broken)
LexID 7725