to sink: to go down into mire, water, or earth and be held fast, or to be driven and set firmly into a surface or place
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
The word paints one vivid picture: something goes down into a substance that closes over it and holds it fast. Most often that substance is deep mire or water, and the one sinking is helpless, so the image becomes a standard biblical picture of being overwhelmed by trouble. When the psalmist cries that he sinks in the miry depths (Psalm 69:2) or Jeremiah is let down into the mud of a cistern (Jeremiah 38:6), the point is the same: caught, going under, unable to climb back out.
The same physical action shows up in two other settings. A stone slung at Goliath "sinks" into his forehead, driving into a hard surface (1 Samuel 17:49). And when God lays the foundations of the earth and fixes the mountains, they are "sunk" into place, planted so firmly that they cannot be moved (Job 38:6;Proverbs 8:25).
So the range runs from disaster to permanence. To sink into the mire is to be lost; to be sunk as a foundation is to be immovable. A reader tells which is meant from what is doing the sinking and where it finally comes to rest.
Nuances
1ato sink down into mire, water, or the earth and be swallowed up, trapped, or drowning
Being stuck fast in soft, deep mire with no footing, unable to climb out. This is the word's most vivid picture: a person mired and trapped, not merely lowered.Psa 69:2Jer 38:6
An object driven into and lodged in a solid surface, penetrating and staying embedded there.1Sa 17:49
Being set down firmly into place so as to stand fast, used of the earth's foundations and the mountains being sunk into their footings.Job 38:6Pro 8:25
Both
Both picture the downfall of a nation as a sinking that does not come back up, a going-down that is final ruin.Psa 9:15Jer 51:64
Both carry the plain physical sense of going down and disappearing beneath the surface.Exo 15:4Amo 9:5
A fire or flame dying down and abating, its blaze subsiding rather than an object going under.Num 11:2
Waters settling and growing calm, their level made to sink so the current runs smooth.Ezk 32:14
A whole landmass heaving up and then subsiding, likened to the yearly rise and fall of the Nile flood.Amo 8:8Amo 9:5
צָלַלpictures a heavy weight plunging straight down like lead in the sea, where this word stresses being drawn into and held fast by what one sinks into
It commonly means to sink and get stuck fast in mud or mire, so the danger is being trapped and unable to move, not only going under.Jer 38:6Psa 69:2
It can describe something set firmly and permanently in place, as foundations or bases sunk into the earth, a settled fixing rather than a fall.Job 38:6Pro 8:25
It is used of one object driven or embedded into another surface, sinking into it rather than dropping through liquid.1Sa 17:49Lam 2:9
Both
Both describe sinking beneath the water and perishing, and both are used in the Song of the Sea for the Egyptians going down in the Red Sea.Exo 15:4Exo 15:10
This rare poetic word pictures a dense body plunging straight down to the depths, dropping fast and deep like lead, with no sense of clinging mud or of being set in place.Exo 15:10
tava in the other biblical languages
καταποντίζωGreek“to sink”the Greek word for being plunged and drowned in the sea, as when Peter began to sink beneath the waves, the closest counterpart to sinking helplessly in water
Reaches past water to mire and mud, where the point is being stuck fast rather than drowning: a person sinking helplessly in deep mire, and Jeremiah lowered until he sank down into the muck of an empty cistern.Psa 69:2Jer 38:6
Describes something driven or settled into a solid surface: a slung stone sinking into Goliath's forehead, a ruined city's gates sunk down into the ground, and the foundations of the earth set fast in place.1Sa 17:49Lam 2:9Job 38:6
Both
Both name a body going down and under real water to the point of drowning: Pharaoh's captains sinking in the Red Sea, the sea as the place of death in Jesus' warning, and Peter beginning to go under the waves.Exo 15:4Mat 18:6Mat 14:30
The Hebrew word reaches past water to a hard thing driven into and lodged in a yielding surface: a stone buried in a forehead, city gates sunk into the earth, foundations and mountains set fast. This sense of embedding and settling something firmly is the Hebrew word's own.1Sa 17:49Lam 2:9Job 38:6Pro 8:25
It also pictures a person stuck fast and going under in deep mud, a vivid image of being trapped by overwhelming trouble with no footing left to stand on.Psa 69:2Jer 38:6
Both
Both name the plain physical act of sinking: something heavy going down through water or mud until it is swallowed from sight.Exo 15:4Luk 5:7
The Greek word is built on the noun for the sea's depths, so it always looks toward the deep: it pictures being pulled all the way down and drowned. As a warning it shows greedy desire dragging a person under into ruin and destruction.1Ti 6:9
What scholars say about tava
The verb טבע is a well-attested root meaning "to sink," listed uniformly across the lexica (BDB; HALOT). It occurs ten times: chiefly in the qal of a person or army sinking into mire or water (Psalm 69:2, 69:14; Jeremiah 38:6), of nations sinking into the pit they dug (Psalm 9:15), and of a city's gates sinking into the ground in ruin (Lamentations 2:9); in the hophal of feet stuck fast in the mire (Jeremiah 38:22); once in the qal of a slung stone penetrating a surface (1 Samuel 17:49); in the pual of Pharaoh's officers sunk in the Red Sea (Exodus 15:4); and in the hophal of the earth's foundations and the mountains being set firmly in place at creation (Job 38:6;Proverbs 8:25). The derived noun טַבַּעַת "signet ring," the seal impressed into wax or clay, is generally traced to this root.