iggeret

אִגֶּרֶת

HebrewH0107“letter”

Appears 10 times · tap a cell to see the verses

2Ch 30:12Ch 30:6Neh 2:7Neh 2:8Neh 2:9Neh 6:5Neh 6:17Neh 6:19Est 9:26Est 9:29

Contents

Meaning
an official letter
Read with care
Related words
English glosses
Related Hebrew words
Other languages
Scholarship
References

Word studyig-GEH-retnoun

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What iggeret means

an official letter: a written message sent from one party to another, usually carrying royal or administrative authority

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word names a letter in the formal sense: a written dispatch carried from a sender to a recipient, most often between people who hold power. Kings send it to their governors, officials send it back and forth, and a national decree is published through it. It is not a word for writing in general but for the physical document that carries an official message.

All ten uses fall in the later books of the Old Testament, and they share one picture. Hezekiah sends letters summoning the nation to keep the Passover; the Persian king grants Nehemiah letters of safe passage and supply; Nehemiah's enemies send letters meant to frighten and discredit him; and the festival of Purim is established and confirmed by letter. In every case the letter is an instrument of authority, not a private note.

Because the word always points to correspondence with weight behind it, it sits close to the broader word for any written document, סֵפֶר, which can mean a book, a scroll, a deed, or a letter. This word is the narrower of the two: it is only ever a letter.

2Ch 30:12Ch 30:6Neh 2:7Neh 2:8Neh 2:9Neh 6:5Neh 6:17Neh 6:19Est 9:26Est 9:29

What iggeret does not mean

In modern English a "letter" often means a personal, informal note, but this word is almost always official correspondence: a royal order, a governor's dispatch, or a published decree. Read the authority behind it, not a friendly message. The word also belongs to the administrative vocabulary of the Persian empire, which is why it appears only in the later books (Chronicles, Nehemiah, Esther) and not in earlier Hebrew.

Related words

The English words used to translate iggeret

“letter”

iggeret1 distinctshared1letter1 distinct

Only iggeret

always names official correspondence carrying authority, whether a king's order or a published national decreeNeh 2:7Est 9:29

Both

both name a written message sent from one party to another2Ch 30:1Neh 6:5

Only letter

in everyday English a "letter" suggests a personal or informal note, a sense this word never has

How iggeret differs from similar Hebrew words

סֵפֶרthe broad word for any written document: a book, scroll, deed, or letter; this word is narrower and always means a letter

iggeret2 distinctshared1סֵפֶר3 distinct

Only iggeret

Always a piece of correspondence and nothing else. Every occurrence is a letter sent from one party to another: Hezekiah's couriers carry his summons to keep the Passover (2 Chronicles 30:1, 2 Chronicles 30:6), Nehemiah asks the king for letters of safe passage and a timber grant (Nehemiah 2:7, Nehemiah 2:8), and the two decrees fixing the feast of Purim are called by this word (Esther 9:26, Esther 9:29).2Ch 30:1Neh 2:7Est 9:29
Leans toward the formal, administrative missive of the Persian period, whether an open letter meant to intimidate in public (Nehemiah 6:5) or the private notes traded between the Judean nobles and Tobiah (Nehemiah 6:17, Nehemiah 6:19).Neh 6:5Neh 6:17

Both

Both can name an official or royal letter. Where a king or official sends written orders, either word will do: Nehemiah's letters of authorization from the king are this word, while the king of Aram's letter of introduction for Naaman and Jezebel's forged orders to the elders of Jezreel use the broader term.Neh 2:92Ki 5:51Ki 21:8

Only סֵפֶר

Names any written document, most often a book or scroll rather than a letter: the book of the generations of Adam (Genesis 5:1), the book of the covenant read aloud to the people (Exodus 24:7), and the book of the law Moses wrote out to the end (Deuteronomy 31:24).Gen 5:1Exo 24:7Deu 31:24
Serves as the word for a binding legal instrument, the written certificate a man draws up and hands to his wife when he divorces her.Deu 24:1Deu 24:3
Names the scroll of a record or chronicle: the book of Jashar (Joshua 10:13) and the royal annals cited again and again through the reigns of the kings (1 Kings 14:19, 1 Kings 14:29).Jos 10:131Ki 14:19

נִשְׁתְּוָןanother borrowed word for an official letter, used only in Ezra and tied even more tightly to a royal edict

iggeret2 distinctshared1נִשְׁתְּוָן1 distinct

Only iggeret

reaches beyond official decrees to ordinary and even hostile private correspondence, not just documents of the crownNeh 6:5Neh 6:17Neh 6:19
names the festal circular letters sent out to establish an observance, such as the letters instituting PurimEst 9:26Est 9:29

Both

both name a written document dispatched under royal authority to secure or command actionNeh 2:7Ezr 7:11

Only נִשְׁתְּוָן

a borrowed administrative term confined to the Persian imperial chancery: a formal document either sent up to the king or issued by him, always tied to the crown and never to private handsEzr 4:7Ezr 7:11

כְּתָבthe writing or edict itself, the text and its wording; this word is the letter that delivers such a decree

iggeret2 distinctshared1כְּתָב3 distinct

Only iggeret

Always a physical piece of correspondence carried by couriers from one party to another. Hezekiah's runners bear his written summons to keep the Passover across Israel and Judah (2 Chronicles 30:1, 2 Chronicles 30:6), and Nehemiah asks the king for sealed letters guaranteeing his safe passage and a grant of timber (Nehemiah 2:7, Nehemiah 2:8).2Ch 30:1Neh 2:7Neh 2:8
Names the delivered dispatch as an object in its own right, one that can be sent open to intimidate in public or passed privately between allies. Sanballat's fifth approach is an open letter held in his servant's hand (Nehemiah 6:5), and the same word covers the notes traded back and forth between the Judean nobles and Tobiah (Nehemiah 6:17, Nehemiah 6:19).Neh 6:5Neh 6:17Neh 6:19

Both

The two words meet at the founding of Purim, where the same binding decree is named once by the document that carries it and once by the text it contains: Mordecai and Queen Esther send out the letters confirming the feast (Esther 9:29), and the Jews take upon themselves the writing they were bound to keep (Esther 9:27).Est 9:29Est 9:27

Only כְּתָב

Names the written text of an edict itself, the wording of the decree as it stands drafted and copied out for the provinces, not the vehicle that carries it. In Esther this is the copy of the writing given out as law (Esther 3:14, Esther 4:8) and the decree written in the king's name that no one may revoke (Esther 8:13).Est 3:14Est 4:8Est 8:13
Can mean the script or characters of a language, each people's own way of writing, a sense the letter word never carries. The Persian orders go out to every province in its own writing (Esther 1:22, Esther 3:12) alongside each people in its own tongue (Esther 8:9).Est 1:22Est 3:12Est 8:9
Names an official register or enrollment list, a use with no connection to correspondence at all. The returning priests who could not find their entry in the genealogical register were barred from the priesthood (Ezra 2:62, Nehemiah 7:64), and the same word marks the register of the house of Israel (Ezekiel 13:9) and the heavenly writing of truth (Daniel 10:21).Ezr 2:62Neh 7:64Ezk 13:9Dan 10:21

מִכְתָּב

iggeret3 distinctshared2מִכְתָּב3 distinct

Only iggeret

Names mail in transit: the document is handed to runners, carried across the country, and put into someone's hand, so the word covers the whole trip from sender to recipient.2Ch 30:6Neh 2:9Neh 6:5
Works in both directions, so it can describe a running exchange of messages between two parties, with notes going out and answers coming back as a form of pressure.Neh 6:17Neh 6:19
Covers the paperwork of empire that a traveler presents to officials along the way, such as a safe passage permit or an order for building supplies.Neh 2:7Neh 2:8

Both

Both can name a document that travels from one person to another and reaches the recipient as a message he must answer for, which is why English Bibles render each of them "letter" in these places.Neh 2:72Ch 21:12
Both name something written down to outlast the moment, so a later generation can look it up and act on it, whether that is the record of how a festival began or the standing instructions of an earlier king.Est 9:262Ch 35:4

Only מִכְתָּב

Can name words cut into stone or metal rather than marked on a scroll, such as the words on the stone tablets or the letters on the gold plate of the priest's turban.Exo 32:16Exo 39:30Deu 10:4
Keeps the spotlight on whose hand produced the words, which is why the phrase regularly runs "the writing of" someone: God, David, Hezekiah.Exo 32:162Ch 35:4Isa 38:9
Points at the wording itself, so it can head up a poem as its title or record the exact terms of an announcement once they are set down on paper.Isa 38:92Ch 36:22Ezr 1:1

iggeret in the other biblical languages

ἐπιστολήGreek“epistle”the Greek word for a letter or epistle, the New Testament counterpart, though it commonly names personal and pastoral letters as well as official ones

iggeret2 distinctshared1ἐπιστολή2 distinct

Only iggeret

Always an official dispatch of the state or crown: a king's letters authorizing safe passage and supplies (Nehemiah 2:7, Nehemiah 2:8, Nehemiah 2:9).Neh 2:7Neh 2:8Neh 2:9
A public summons or an open political letter: the royal call to keep the Passover (2 Chronicles 30:1), the letter fixing the days of Purim (Esther 9:29), and Sanballat's open letter of accusation (Nehemiah 6:5).2Ch 30:1Est 9:29Neh 6:5

Both

Both name a written letter carried and delivered to accomplish something at a distance (Hebrew: couriers carried the king's letters throughout the land, 2 Chronicles 30:6; Greek: letters requested to authorize arrests in Damascus, Acts 9:2).2Ch 30:6Act 9:2

Only ἐπιστολή

The personal, teaching letter that carries apostolic authority and is meant to be read aloud to the gathered church (Colossians 4:16, 1 Thessalonians 5:27), even weighed against the writer's own bodily presence (2 Corinthians 10:10).Col 4:161Th 5:272Co 10:10
Turned into a picture of transformed lives, a living letter written on the heart and known by all (2 Corinthians 3:2, 2 Corinthians 3:3).2Co 3:22Co 3:3

What scholars say about iggeret

The noun is widely regarded as a loanword, most often traced to Akkadian egirtu ("a one-column tablet, letter") entering Hebrew through Imperial Aramaic; its ten occurrences cluster in the post-exilic corpus (Chronicles, Nehemiah, Esther), where it consistently denotes an official written dispatch. HALOT and BDB agree on the sense, and there is no live dispute over its meaning.

Sources

HALOT, s.v. אִגֶּרֶתlexicon
BDB, s.v. אִגֶּרֶתlexicon

How this word study was made

This study was written by an AI language model from its own training, without source-by-source verification. It's reliable for common words and mainstream meanings, but can err on rare forms, fine nuances, and up-to-date scholarship. Double-check anything important against a standard lexicon. A research-grade version, cross-checked against hundreds of academic sources, is on the way.

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

iggeret

What iggeret means

an official letter: a written message sent from one party to another, usually carrying royal or administrative authority

What scholars say about iggeret

Sources

All attested forms of אִגֶּרֶת

f p absolute

f s absolute

f s construct

f p construct

f p construct