To have heart failure / Be stricken by apoplexy
Suffered a stroke or heart attack (literally, a seizure of death or convulsive trembling).
("Then he said to me: ‘Stand over me and slay me, for the shavatz has seized me, and my soul is yet within me’" – 2 Samuel 1:9. Also in modern literature: “Out of rage he was struck with apoplexy… between kugel and kugel, the shavatz seized him again and he passed away” – S.Y. Agnon, A City in Its Fullness.)
Translation
Expression (Hebrew)
אֲחָזוֹ הַשָּׁבָץ
Definition (Hebrew)
קִבֵּל שָׁבָץ אוֹ הֶתְקֵף לֵב (שָׁבָץ מַשְׁמָע עֲוִית מָוֶת, רְעִידָה).
("וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי, עֲמָד נָא עָלַי וּמֹתְתֵנִי כִּי אֲחָזַנִי הַשָּׁבָץ כִּי כָל עוֹד נַפְשִׁי בִּי" - שְׁמוּאֵל ב א ט; וְכֵן: "מֵרֹב כַּעַס אָחֲזוּ הַשָּׁבָץ... בֵּין קוּגְל לַקּוּגְל שׁוּב אָחֲזוּ הַשָּׁבָץ וְשָׁבַק חַיִּים לְכָל חַי" - עַגְנוֹן, עִיר וּמְלוֹאָהּ, 647, 649)