StrongerBible

nasah

נָשָׁא

HebrewH5377“beguile, deceive, ...”

Appears 16 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 3:132Ki 18:292Ki 19:102Ch 32:15Psa 55:15(16)Psa 89:22(23)Isa 19:13Isa 36:14Isa 37:10Jer 4:10 (2×)Jer 29:8Jer 37:9Jer 49:16Oba 1:3Oba 1:7
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradenah-SHAHverb

What nasah means

to deceive: to lure someone into a false sense of security or hope so their own judgment is corrupted

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

This verb names a very particular kind of deception. It is not simply telling a lie (that is כזב), nor betraying someone who trusted you (that is רמה), nor coaxing a vulnerable person into something (that is פתה). It is the act of lulling a person or a whole nation into misplaced confidence: feeding them a false hope or a false sense of safety until they can no longer see their real danger.

The word turns up at some of the tensest moments in the Hebrew Bible. The serpent uses it to Eve in the garden. An Assyrian officer flings it at the crowd on the walls of Jerusalem, warning them not to let King Hezekiah, and then not to let God, fool them into holding out. Jeremiah uses it of the prophets who promised peace that never came. It is the language of propaganda and false assurance in a crisis.

The same core action shows up from several angles:

  • one person or power deceiving another into false confidence
  • people deceiving themselves, lulling their own hearts with a hope they want to be true
  • an inner attitude, especially pride, that deceives its owner from the inside
  • the state of having been fooled, described from the victim's side

Its most disturbing appearance is in Jeremiah 4:10, the one place where God is the one who deceives. That single verse has generated centuries of debate, gathered below.

Nuances

1ato mislead another person or nation, luring them into false confidence or security
Gen 3:132Ki 18:292Ki 19:102Ch 32:15Psa 55:15(16)Psa 89:22(23)Isa 36:14Isa 37:10Jer 4:10 (2×)Jer 29:8Oba 1:7
Jer 4:10

How to read God as the subject of the verb in Jeremiah 4:10: whether it claims God actively deceived the people through the prophets of peace, only permitted them to be deceived, or whether the accusation should be shifted onto the false prophets.

  • majorityA straightforward accusation: God himself misled the people through the optimistic promises of peace, and the prophet says so plainly.; Holladay, Jeremiah 1 (Hermeneia), 149-55; Carroll, Jeremiah (OTL); McKane, Jeremiah 1-25 (ICC)
  • minorityGod permitted the deception rather than performing it, the verb read as allowing the people to be deceived.; Chisholm, "Does God Deceive?" Bibliotheca Sacra 155 (1998): 11-28; Waltke and O'Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, 27.5c
  • minorityThe deceiving is reassigned to the false prophets, by emending the text or following the ancient Aramaic translation, sparing God the accusation.; Duhm, Das Buch Jeremia; Targum Jonathan (ad loc.)
1bto deceive oneself: to lull one's own heart with a false hope
Jer 37:9
1c(of pride or arrogance) to deceive from within: an inner attitude that leads its owner astray
Jer 49:16Oba 1:3
1dto be deluded, to be led astray, described from the side of the victim rather than the deceiver
Isa 19:13

What scholars say about nasah

The standard reference works are unusually unanimous. BDB, HALOT, DCH, and TWOT all list this as a distinct root (BDB's II. nasha') glossed "beguile, deceive, delude," attested only in the Hiphil (fourteen times) and a single Niphal (Isa 19:13), with the initial nun assimilating into the shin. All of them separate it from the homonym meaning "lend, act as creditor," rejecting Strong's conjecture that the two are one root joined by the idea of "imposition," and all reject the folk connection with nasa' "lift" (which has sin, a phonemically distinct sibilant, and a secure Proto-Semitic pedigree in Akkadian nashu and Ugaritic nsh'). The deceive-root is comparatively isolated: no clear cognate has been identified (BDB: "the forms can hardly be derived"), and the Targumists rendered Gen 3:13 with an unrelated verb for erring. The word's distribution is concentrated in eighth- through sixth-century prophetic and historiographical texts about political and theological crisis. Its heaviest crux is Jer 4:10, the sole place God is its subject; Holladay, Lundbom, McKane, and Carroll defend a straightforward accusation against emendation, while Chisholm argues a permissive reading, and the passage is read alongside the divine-deception texts 1 Kings 22:19-23, Ezekiel 14:9, and Jeremiah 20:7 (the latter using the neighboring verb patah). Trible noted that Genesis chose this verb rather than patah, avoiding the seductive overtone; Cogan and Tadmor set the Rabshakeh's use within Assyrian psychological warfare; Wildberger reads the lone Niphal in Isa 19:13 as delusion administered by God.

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, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 674 (II. nasha')lexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. nasha' IIlexicon
  • DCH, ed. Clines, vol. V, s.v. nasha'lexicon
  • TWOT #1425dictionary
  • Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Languagedictionary
  • Holladay, Jeremiah 1 (Hermeneia), 149-55commentary
  • Lundbom, Jeremiah 1-20 (Anchor Bible 21A), 339-40commentary
  • McKane, Jeremiah 1-25 (ICC)commentary
  • Carroll, Jeremiah (OTL)commentary
  • Cogan and Tadmor, II Kings (Anchor Bible)commentary
  • Wildberger, Isaiah 13-27 (Continental Commentary)commentary
  • Trible, God and the Rhetoric of Sexualitymonograph
  • Crenshaw, Prophetic Conflict (BZAW 124)monograph
  • Roberts, "Does God Lie? Divine Deceit as a Theological Problem in Israelite Prophetic Literature," VTSup 40 (1988): 211-20article
  • Chisholm, "Does God Deceive?" Bibliotheca Sacra 155 (1998): 11-28article

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

All attested forms of נָשָׁא

hiphil imperfect 3ms

יַשִּׁא, יַשִּׁיא, יַשִּׁאֲ, יַשִּׁי

Psa 89:22, Isa 36:14, 2Ki 18:29, 2Ch 32:15, Isa 37:10, Psa 55:15

hiphil perfect 3ms

הִשִּׁיא, הִשִּׁיאֶ, הִשִּׁיאַ

Jer 49:16, Oba 1:3, Gen 3:13

hiphil imperfect 2mp

תַּשִּׁאוּ

Jer 37:9

hiphil imperfect 3mp

יַשִּׁיאוּ

Jer 29:8

hiphil infinitive-absolute absolute

הַשֵּׁא

Jer 4:10

hiphil jussive 3ms

יַשִּׁאֲ

2Ki 19:10

hiphil perfect 2ms

הִשֵּׁאתָ

Jer 4:10

hiphil perfect 3cp

הִשִּׁיאוּ

Oba 1:7

niphal perfect 3cp

נִשְּׁאוּ

Isa 19:13