שֶׁפַע

The word "שֶׁפַע" (shefa) appears in the Bible only once, in Moses' blessing to the tribes of Zebulun and Issachar: "They shall call the peoples to the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness; for they shall suck the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand" (Deuteronomy 33:19). The biblical word seems to have originally denoted a gushing of abundant waters ("abundance of seas"), in accordance with the root sh-p-' which indicates flowing or springing. In Modern Hebrew, the word refers to an abundance of anything, not just liquids, and is usually used in a higher register than "הרבה" (harbe, "a lot") or "המון" (hamon, "plenty"). It is used both as a noun ("There is an abundance of food") and as a verb ("The store is abundant with products"). Additional forms have also been derived from the word in Modern Hebrew, such as the adjective "שופע" (shofe'a, "abundant") and the verbal noun "שפיעה" (shfi'a, "abundance").