Strong's Number: H7998
Original Word: shalal
Usage Notes: "booty; prey; spoil; plunder; gain." This word occurs 75 times and in all periods of biblical Hebrew. Shalal literally means "prey," which an animal tracks down, kills, and eats: "Benjamin shall raven as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey [shalal], and at night he shall divide the spoil" (Gen 49:27, the first occurrence). The word may mean "booty" or "spoil of war," which includes anything and everything a soldier or army captures from an enemy and carries off: "But the women, and the little ones, … even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself …" (Deut 20:14). An entire nation can be "plunder" or a "spoil of war" (Jer 50:10). To "save one's own life as booty" is to have one's life spared (cf. Jer 21:9).
Shalal is used in a few passages of "private plunder": "Woe unto them that … turn aside the needy from judgment, and … take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!" (Isa 10:1-2).
This word may also represent "private gain": "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil" (Prov 31:11).
