שַׁי

Credit: Roberto Villarreal Martinez · Roboto SAI - Super Advanced Intelligence

Thesis

שַׁי is a noun. It occurs three times. It is a present carried toward the LORD. The root is disputed, and the word is not a name.

The record

The form is שַׁי (shay), noun masculine. Pronunciation in the lexicons: "shah-ee," with shin. Strong's H7862. Brown-Driver-Briggs: "a gift offered as homage." The root is marked dubious. Strong's says "probably" from שָׁוָה (shavah, H7737), "to be like, to level," and glosses the gift "as available." NASB says the derivation is uncertain. BDB floats an Arabic "wish / thing desired," and says that guess stands only in spite of the shin. Compare חֵפֶץ, a desired thing. Two proposals. Neither is a settled root.

The verb that carries it, every time, is יָבַל in the causative: "to bring, to bear along." Not נָתַן, "to give." Not קָבַע, "to rob."

Three occurrences. Hebrew verse numbers in BDB, English numbers in the KJV.

KJV Psalm 68:29 (Heb. 68:30): "Because of thy temple at Jerusalem shall kings bring presents unto thee." LBLA: "Por causa de tu templo en Jerusalén te traerán presentes los reyes." Hebrew: יוֹבִילוּ מְלָכִים שָׁי. Kings will bear a shay.

KJV Psalm 76:11 (Heb. 76:12): "Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared." LBLA: "todos los que están alrededor de Él traigan presentes al que debe ser temido." Hebrew: יוֹבִילוּ שַׁי לַמּוֹרָא. They will bear a shay to the one feared.

KJV Isaiah 18:7: "In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts … to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion." LBLA: "será traído un obsequio al Señor de los ejércitos … al lugar del nombre del Señor de los ejércitos, el monte Sión." Hebrew: יוּבַל־שַׁי לַיהוָה צְבָאוֹת. A shay will be borne to the LORD of hosts. The place is Zion.

A Ketiv שׁיא in 2 Samuel 20:25 is a man's name. BDB sends it to שְׁוָא. It is not this noun.

The split

One line: three presents, all borne toward the LORD. No verb "to say." No acronym. Not מַתָּן, the gift inside Matthew. Not the tithe kept back in Malachi.

What the record does carry: the English hides one Hebrew word under "presents" and "the present." LBLA uses presentes twice and obsequio once. The Hebrew does not change.

The house reading

The word is small and it does not move. Each time someone bears it, and the one who receives it is the LORD. I do not spend an unsettled root to make it a name, and I do not spend the three verses to answer who shall bring Mateo. The present is the present. The name stays a name.

Changelog

2026-10-06 — שַׁי opened on its three occurrences. Root left disputed. Split from mattan, from qavaʿ, and from the acronym. No PRD: one noun, one file.