StrongerBible

bizzah

בִּזָּה

HebrewH0961spoil, plunder, ...

Appears 10 times · tap a cell to see the verses

2Ch 14:14(13)2Ch 25:132Ch 28:14Ezr 9:7Neh 4:4(3:36)Est 9:10Est 9:15Est 9:16Dan 11:24Dan 11:33
Root family
Word studybih-ZAHnoun

What bizzah means

spoil: what is seized and carried off from a defeated enemy, whether the plundered goods themselves or the experience of being plundered

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is a word for plunder, the goods and livestock that a victorious army strips from the people it beats and hauls away. It belongs to the later books of the Hebrew Bible, turning up in Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel, and it usually names the prize itself: the sheep and camels driven home, the valuables gathered up, the loot a raiding party divides.

The same word can also name the flip side of that scene, the experience of being on the losing end. When a people is "given to plunder," the word points not to the goods but to the fate: to be stripped, overrun, and carried off. So one term holds both the winner's haul and the loser's ruin.

Hebrew has a small family of overlapping words for spoil. The closest is בַּז, an older and more widespread word for the same thing, while שָׁלָל is the standard, common term for the spoils of war. This later form sits alongside them, favored by the writers of the books composed after the exile.

Nuances

1athe plunder itself: the goods, livestock, and valuables carried off after a victory
TranslatabilityDirect
2Ch 14:14(13)2Ch 25:132Ch 28:14Est 9:10Est 9:15Est 9:16Dan 11:24
1bbeing given over to plunder: the condition of a people stripped and carried off as spoil
Ezr 9:7Neh 4:4(3:36)Dan 11:33

What scholars say about bizzah

בִּזָּה is a feminine noun from the root בזז "to plunder," attested only in Late Biblical Hebrew (Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel). It is a byform alongside the older masculine בַּז and overlaps semantically with the far more common שָׁלָל. The standard lexica gloss it "booty, spoil" and note the metonymic extension to "a plundering, a spoiling" of persons given up to it (Ezra 9:7; Nehemiah 3:36 [English 4:4]).

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. בִּזָּהlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. בִּזָּהlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. בִּזָּהlexicon

All attested forms of בִּזָּה

f s absolute

בִּזָּה

2Ch 14:14, 2Ch 25:13, 2Ch 28:14, Ezr 9:7, Neh 4:4, Est 9:10, Est 9:15, Est 9:16