StrongerBible

ze'aqah

זְעָקָה

HebrewH2201“cry, outcry”

Appears 18 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 18:20Neh 5:6Neh 9:9Est 4:1Est 9:31Job 16:18Pro 21:13Ecc 9:17Isa 15:5Isa 15:8Isa 65:19Jer 18:22Jer 20:16Jer 48:4Jer 48:34Jer 50:46Jer 51:54Ezk 27:28
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradezeh-ah-KAHnoun

What ze'aqah means

a loud outcry: the piercing cry that pain, terror, or wrong forces out of a person, aimed at someone who can help

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This word names one very specific sound: the loud, involuntary cry that pain, terror, or injustice forces out of a person, and it is almost always aimed at someone who can do something about it. It is closer to an appeal for help than to ordinary weeping. When the blood of a murdered man, the victims of a cruel city, or slaves worked to exhaustion "cry out," the point is not that they feel sad but that they are calling on a higher power to step in and set things right.

That single idea stretches across a range of situations:

  • the appeal of the wronged, begging God or a ruler to act
  • the wail of a whole people or city as disaster falls on it
  • the loud shout of someone simply making noise, like a ruler bellowing among fools

It has an almost identical twin spelled with a different opening letter (צְעָקָה), which means the same thing; the two even appear in neighboring verses of the story of Sodom. It should not be confused with plain weeping (בְּכִי), the shedding of tears, which needs no one to hear it. This word, by contrast, is a shout thrown toward a rescuer.

Because Israel believed God was bound to hear this kind of cry, the word carries real weight. The prophets could even turn it back on Israel: Isaiah accused God's own people of producing this outcry, the sound of the oppressed, in the very place where God had looked for justice.

Nuances

1aa cry for help against a wrong: an appeal to God or an authority who is bound to act
Gen 18:20Neh 5:6Neh 9:9Job 16:18Pro 21:13
1bthe wail of anguish: the loud cry of a person, city, or nation stricken by disaster or grief
Est 4:1Est 9:31Isa 15:5Isa 15:8Isa 65:19Jer 18:22Jer 20:16Jer 48:4Jer 48:34Jer 50:46Jer 51:54Ezk 27:28
1ca loud shout or clamor, raised to command or be heard rather than to plead
TranslatabilityDirect
Ecc 9:17

What scholars say about ze'aqah

The major lexicons (BDB, HALOT, Gesenius18) treat this noun and its variant spelling, together with their verbs, as one lexical entity meaning "to cry for help." Gerhard Hasel's TDOT article, the standard treatment, argues that the basic sense is a cry for help (Hilferuf) and stresses its legal dimension: the outcry is an appeal to a superior, whether king, judge, or God, who is bound to respond. Rainer Albertz (TLOT) sorts the uses into cries of personal or corporate distress, cries against injustice (about a third of all cases), and cries for military or political rescue. Richard Boyce's monograph The Cry to God in the Old Testament locates the word's institutional home in the appeal of a marginal petitioner to a royal judge, from which the theological cry to God is derived. Comparative Semitists, notably John Huehnergard and Edward Lipinski, observe that Arabic keeps the two consonantal shapes as separate roots and argue the Hebrew pair reflects two originally distinct roots that converged.

Where scholars disagree about ze'aqah

Whether the two Hebrew nouns for outcry (this word and its near-twin spelled with a different opening consonant) go back to a single ancient root or to two originally separate roots that later merged in meaning.

  • majorityThey are phonetic variants of one root; the standard lexicons treat the pair as a single word with two spellings.; BDB, 277-78, 858; HALOT, s.v. זעק, צעק; Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (Jerusalem: Carta, 1987), s.v. זעק, צעק
  • minorityThey descend from two originally distinct Proto-Semitic roots that converged in Hebrew, since Arabic preserves the two consonants as separate roots with different meanings.; John Huehnergard, 'Proto-Semitic,' in The Semitic Languages, ed. Stefan Weninger (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011), 259-78; Edward Lipinski, Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar, 2nd ed., OLA 80 (Leuven: Peeters, 2001)
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. זעק, צעקlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. זעק, צעקlexicon
  • Gesenius18, s.v. זעק, צעקlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield, 1996-2010), s.v. זעק, צעקlexicon
  • Gerhard F. Hasel, 'zaaq / saaq,' Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament 4:112-22dictionary
  • Rainer Albertz, 'saaq to cry,' Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament 3:1088-93dictionary
  • Richard Nelson Boyce, The Cry to God in the Old Testament, SBLDS 103 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1988)monograph
  • Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis, JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1989)commentary

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

All attested forms of זְעָקָה

f s absolute

זְעָקָה, זְּעָקָה

Est 4:1, Isa 65:19, Jer 18:22, Jer 20:16, Jer 50:46, Jer 51:54, Isa 15:8, Jer 48:4

f s construct

זַעֲקַת, זַּעֲקַת

Gen 18:20, Isa 15:5, Ezk 27:28, Pro 21:13, Ecc 9:17, Jer 48:34

f s construct

זַעֲקָתָם

Neh 5:6, Neh 9:9, Est 9:31

f s construct

זַעֲקָתִי

Job 16:18