In the Bible teshuvah just means a season's turn; its famous meaning, repentance, comes from the same root, later.
Teshuvah is a noun built from the verb shuv, to turn or return, and in the Hebrew Bible it shows up only a handful of times, always in a plain, calendar sense. 'At the return of the year' — when kings mustered their armies again after winter — is the whole of its biblical career (2 Samuel 11:1, 1 Kings 20:22, 26, 1 Chronicles 20:1). No repentance in sight.
The word we associate with teshuvah — turning back to God, changing course, repentance — comes from the verb shuv itself, used constantly by the prophets: Israel is called to shuv, to return. Later Jewish tradition took that verbal energy and gave it a name, a noun, teshuvah, and built an entire theology of return around it. The Bible has the action everywhere. The technical word for it is rabbinic.
In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.
Marks 'the return of the year' when kings resumed war — David stayed home, and the story turns dark.
Afterward, the prophet approached the king of Israel and said, “Go and strengthen your position, and take note what you must do, for in the spring the king of Aram will come up against you.”
An officer warns Ben-hadad that a stronger army will come at the year's return.
In the spring, Ben-hadad mobilized the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.
The following spring, at the year's return, Ben-hadad attacks again, as warned.
In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. He came to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab attacked Rabbah and demolished it.
The Chronicler's parallel to 2 Samuel 11:1, same phrase, same campaigning season.
English Bibles never have to translate teshuvah as repentance, because the word doesn't carry that sense in the text. What they translate is the verb shuv, rendered variously as 'return,' 'repent,' or 'turn back' — three different English words doing one Hebrew job. 'Repent,' with its overtone of feeling sorry, narrows a verb that is really about direction: turning around and walking the other way.
People often quote teshuvah as if it were the Bible's own great word for repentance, sometimes with claims about how many times it appears meaning 'return to God.' In fact the noun barely appears, and never with that sense. The prophetic call to turn back to God is carried by the verb shuv, not by this later, rabbinic noun built from it.
Tap any word while you read and get its original-language root, its range of meaning, and everywhere else it appears — without leaving the verse.
Then understand every verse. BibleKey is free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on the App StoreFree on iPhone & iPad