Shavar means to break, shatter, or smash — often applied to physical objects (pots, bones, tablets) but also to abstract realities like pride, covenants, and the spirit. Appearing about 148 times, it encompasses both destructive breaking (in judgment) and redemptive breaking (as when hardened hearts are broken before God). The Niphal form means "to be broken."
Shavar expresses both God's judgment and His healing work. The breaking of tablets at Sinai (Exodus 32:19) dramatized covenant rupture. God "breaks the bow" of the mighty (1 Samuel 2:4) and "breaks the gates of bronze" to free captives (Isaiah 45:2). Crucially, God is near to those whose spirit is broken (Psalm 34:18 — nishbar lev). The Hebrew concept of brokenness before God is not weakness but the doorway to divine encounter — a crushed and broken heart God does not despise (Psalm 51:17).