StrongerBible

zuv

זוּב

HebrewH2100flow, issue, ...

Appears 42 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 3:8Exo 3:17Exo 13:5Exo 33:3Lev 15:2Lev 15:4Lev 15:6Lev 15:7Lev 15:8Lev 15:9Lev 15:11Lev 15:12Lev 15:13Lev 15:19Lev 15:25 (2×)Lev 15:32Lev 15:33Lev 20:24Lev 22:4Num 5:2Num 13:27Num 14:8Num 16:13Num 16:14Deu 6:3Deu 11:9Deu 26:92Sa 3:29Psa 78:20Psa 105:41Isa 48:21Jer 49:4Lam 4:9
Root family
Word studyZOOVverb

What zuv means

to flow: to stream or gush out, said of any liquid pouring forth

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The picture behind this word is liquid in motion: something pours out, runs, or gushes rather than sitting still. The Bible uses it for water bursting from a rock, for a land so fertile it seems to ooze with good things, and for fluid leaking from a body. In every case the same image is at work, only the source changes.

Its most famous use is the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey. The word does not mean the land literally drips; it pictures abundance that streams out without effort, the way a spring keeps running on its own. That is why translators keep the vivid word flowing rather than flattening it to a plain word like rich or fertile.

The same verb turns sober in the law of bodily fluids, where a person who flows is someone with an abnormal discharge that makes them ceremonially unclean. Here the flowing is unwelcome, a leak that has to be dealt with. One stretching use, the people who pine away in Lamentations, lets the flowing run inward: life itself draining out of them. A few scholars suspect that last sense is a separate look-alike word rather than the same one.

Nuances

1ato flow with abundance: to overflow with good things (the land flowing with milk and honey)
Exo 3:8Exo 3:17Exo 13:5Exo 33:3Lev 20:24Num 13:27Num 14:8Num 16:13Num 16:14Deu 6:3Deu 11:9Deu 26:9
1bto gush out: water bursting or streaming from its source
Psa 78:20Psa 105:41Isa 48:21
1cto have a bodily discharge: to leak fluid from the body, making a person ceremonially unclean
Lev 15:2Lev 15:4Lev 15:6Lev 15:7Lev 15:8Lev 15:9Lev 15:11Lev 15:12Lev 15:13Lev 15:19Lev 15:25 (2×)Lev 15:32
1dto waste away: to pine, as if life were flowing out
CertaintyContested
Lam 4:9

What scholars say about zuv

The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat zuv as a single verb meaning to flow, gush, with the discharge of Leviticus 15 as the same verb applied to bodily fluid and the milk-and-honey idiom as a frozen participle of abundance. The bodily-flux sense dominates the law of purity (Leviticus 15; Numbers 5:2), where the substantival participle (the one who flows) becomes a near-technical term for a person with an abnormal discharge; on this see Milgrom's Leviticus and the wider study of the impurity system. The figurative wasting-away of Lamentations 4:9 is where the lexica diverge: BDB and some treat it as a possible second root, while HALOT and DCH keep it under the single flow verb as a metaphor for life draining away.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. זובlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. זובlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. זובlexicon
  • Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (Anchor Bible)commentary

All attested forms of זוּב

qal participle f s construct

זָבַת

Exo 3:8, Exo 3:17, Exo 13:5, Exo 33:3, Lev 20:24, Num 13:27, Num 14:8, Num 16:13

qal participle m s absolute

זָּב, זָב

Lev 15:4, Lev 15:6, Lev 15:7, Lev 15:8, Lev 15:9, Lev 15:11, Lev 15:12, Lev 15:13

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיָּזוּבוּ, וַיָּזֻבוּ

Psa 78:20, Psa 105:41, Isa 48:21

qal imperfect 3fs

תָזוּב

Lev 15:25

qal imperfect 3mp

יָזוּבוּ

Lam 4:9

qal imperfect 3ms

יָזוּב

Lev 15:25

qal participle f s absolute

זָבָה

Lev 15:19

qal perfect 3ms

זָב

Jer 49:4