StrongerBible

zamir

זָמִיר

HebrewH2158“song”

Appears 6 times · tap a cell to see the verses

2Sa 23:1Job 35:10Psa 95:2Psa 119:54Isa 24:16Isa 25:5
Root family
Word studyzah-MEERnoun

What zamir means

a song of praise: singing raised in someone's honor, and in nearly every use the music Israel lifted to God

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This is a song word with worship built into it. It belongs to the same root as the verb for making music (זָמַר), the verb behind much of Israel's praise vocabulary, and the noun keeps that setting. The ordinary Hebrew word for a song (שִׁיר) can name any song at all, a love song or a work song as easily as a hymn. This one almost never strays from praise.

Five of its six appearances point the same way:

  • Psalm 95 calls the congregation to come before God with songs.
  • Psalm 119 says that God's own decrees had become the poet's songs while he lived far from home.
  • Job asks after the God who gives songs in the night.
  • Isaiah hears songs carried from the ends of the earth, crying glory to the Righteous One.
  • 2 Samuel opens David's last words by calling him the sweet one of Israel's songs, which English Bibles usually turn into "the sweet psalmist of Israel."

The sixth use turns the word around. In Isaiah 25:5 the singers are the ruthless, and God puts their song down the way the shadow of a cloud kills the heat of the day. The same music that belongs in worship can also be a conqueror's swagger, and the prophet's promise is that it gets silenced.

A small family of related words fills out the picture: the melody or music itself (זִמְרָה), the composed piece named at the head of most psalms (מִזְמוֹר), and the form used in the old song at the sea, "the LORD is my strength and my song" (זִמְרָת). All of them treat praise as something made, arranged, and performed, not simply felt.

Nuances

1aa song lifted up to God: praise sung or played in worship, the kind of music that became Israel's psalms
2Sa 23:1Job 35:10Psa 95:2Psa 119:54Isa 24:16
2Sa 23:1

Whether the word in 2 Samuel 23:1 means "songs," making David the sweet singer of Israel's songs, or belongs to a separate root meaning "strength, protection," making him the favorite of Israel's Protector.

  • majorityIt is the ordinary noun for song. The phrase names David as the one who gave Israel its psalms, which suits the psalm quoted in the preceding chapter and the poem that follows.; BDB, s.v. זָמִיר; HALOT, s.v. זָמִיר
  • minorityIt belongs to a homonymous root zmr "to be strong, to protect," compared with Ugaritic ḏmr and argued for זִמְרָת in Exodus 15:2, so the phrase should be rendered "the favorite of the Protector of Israel."; HALOT, s.v. זִמְרָת; P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel (Anchor Bible 9), on 2 Samuel 23:1
1bthe triumph song of oppressors: the boasting of the ruthless, which God cuts short
TranslatabilityDirect
Isa 25:5

What scholars say about zamir

Standard lexica list two identically spelled nouns: זָמִיר I "song," from the root זמר "to make music," and זָמִיר II "pruning, trimming," from a homonymous root, attested only at Song of Songs 2:12 (BDB; HALOT; DCH). This entry covers the first. At Song of Songs 2:12 the ancient versions read the agricultural sense (LXX τομή, Vulgate putatio), while most modern English versions render "the time of singing," partly on the strength of the turtledove's voice in the following clause; the question remains open.

Within זָמִיר I the six occurrences divide by form. Five are the feminine plural זְמִרוֹת (Job 35:10; 2 Samuel 23:1; Psalms 95:2; 119:54; Isaiah 24:16), which some lexica prefer to list under a feminine זְמִרָה, and one is the masculine singular construct at Isaiah 25:5. That verse is textually difficult; the parallel with שְׁאוֹן זָרִים in the preceding clause supports taking זְמִיר עָרִיצִים as the exultant song of the tyrants, though the pruning root has been invoked there as well (so KJV, "the branch of the terrible ones").

The most discussed occurrence is 2 Samuel 23:1. HALOT and DCH register a homonymous root zmr "to be strong, to protect," compared with Ugaritic ḏmr, chiefly for זִמְרָת at Exodus 15:2, Isaiah 12:2, and Psalm 118:14; a number of commentators on Samuel extend it to נְעִים זְמִרוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל, yielding "the favorite of the Protector of Israel" in place of "the sweet psalmist of Israel." The majority of translations and commentaries retain the singing sense, supported by the psalm quoted in 2 Samuel 22 and by the poem that follows in 23:2 to 7.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. זָמִירlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. זָמִירlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. זָמִירlexicon
  • TDOT, s.v. זמרtheological-dictionary
  • NIDOTTE, s.v. זמרtheological-dictionary
  • P. Kyle McCarter Jr., II Samuel (Anchor Bible 9), on 2 Samuel 23:1commentary

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

All attested forms of זָמִיר

f p absolute

זְמִרוֹת, זְמִרֹת

Job 35:10, Psa 95:2, Psa 119:54, Isa 24:16

f p construct

זְמִרוֹת

2Sa 23:1

m s construct

זְמִיר

Isa 25:5