Jeremiah 5:8

משכים — from the primitive root ש‑כ‑ם, literally “to incline the shoulder / bend the shoulder under a burden”, i.e., the physical act of lifting or bearing a load on the shoulder, whether on a person or an animal. In the Qal stem, the denominative participle מַשְׁכִּים denotes “one who inclines the shoulder,” literally a burden-bearer. In the Hiphil stem (משכים), the causative sense is preserved: “to cause to incline the shoulder / to put a burden onto the shoulder”. The core semantic idea is physical adjustment under weight, with the shoulder bending downward to carry the load. Early attestations are in Biblical Hebrew; the form occurs with both nouns and participles describing this literal shoulder-bearing action.