to scatter: to spread or drive something widely apart, whether flinging enemies and exiles abroad or handing out one's goods freely
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
At heart this verb pictures a single motion: taking something gathered together and sending it out in every direction. What that motion means depends on what is being flung. Turned against an enemy it is defeat, with bones and armies strewn across the ground. Turned against a whole people it is exile, a nation broken up and dispersed among the nations.
The same image turns generous when a person scatters what is his own. Like a farmer broadcasting seed by the handful, the giver in Psalm 112:9 and Proverbs 11:24 flings his goods wide to the poor, and the surprise is that he ends up richer, not poorer. Scattering, which looks like loss, becomes increase.
Hebrew has more common words for scattering, above all פּוּץ; this one is rarer and vivid, and at home in poetry.
Nuances
1ato scatter or disperse: to drive apart or spread abroad, as an army is routed, bones are strewn, frost is strewn on the ground, or a people is broken up and dispersed
TranslatabilityDirect
Est 3:8Psa 53:5(6)Psa 89:10(11)Psa 141:7Psa 147:16Jer 3:13Jer 50:17Jol 3:2(4:2)
1bto distribute liberally: to give away freely and open-handedly, scattering one's goods the way a sower broadcasts seed
Develops a positive sense the other word never has: scattering as open-handed giving, spreading resources around freely to those in need.Psa 112:9Pro 11:24
Names the plain physical act of things being flung apart and left lying about, with no winnowing or sifting picture behind it.Psa 141:7Psa 89:10
Both
Both describe God scattering a people among or toward the nations as an act of judgment, driving them apart from their land.Ezk 36:19Jol 3:2Jer 50:17
Carries the farming picture of winnowing: tossing threshed grain into the wind so the light chaff blows away and the good kernels drop. This sifting, separating image is the word's home base.Rut 3:2Isa 30:24Jer 4:11
From the winnowing image it becomes the prophets' favorite word for God sifting Israel out among the nations in exile, and it dominates Ezekiel's judgment speeches in a way the other word never does.Ezk 5:10Ezk 12:15Ezk 20:23
Used for strewing or sprinkling a fine substance over a surface, an action of spreading out rather than merely dispersing.Exo 32:20Num 16:37
בָּזַרa rare scatter-verb used of dispersing peoples (Psalm 68:30) and dividing up plunder (Daniel 11:24)
extends to open-handed giving: to scatter here is to hand out freely to the poor and so grow richer, a generous dispersal that gains rather than loses.Psa 112:9Pro 11:24
reaches to lifeless things flung apart: frost strewn like ashes over the ground, or bones cast about at the mouth of the grave.Psa 147:16Psa 141:7
Both
both name the forced dispersal of a people or flock: Israel driven apart like scattered sheep, and the sheep of the flock scattered when the shepherd is struck down.Jer 50:17Mat 26:31
both describe God breaking up his enemies and the proud, scattering the arrogant by the strength of his arm.Psa 89:10Luk 1:51
extends to squandering wealth: the prodigal son and the dishonest steward both scatter money away in reckless living, so here scattering means to waste and ruin what one holds.Luk 15:13Luk 16:1
σκορπίζωGreek“to scatter”the Greek verb Paul uses when he quotes Psalm 112:9 in 2 Corinthians 9:9 for the generous giver who scatters to the poor
פָּזַר also scatters lifeless things, bones flung about and frost strewn like ashes, a physical strewing the Greek word is never used for.Psa 53:5Psa 141:7Psa 147:16
Both
Both name generous giving pictured as scattering, wealth strewn so freely it looks like a farmer sowing broadcast. Paul's "he has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor" in 2 Corinthians 9:9 quotes Psalm 112:9 directly.2Co 9:9Psa 112:9
Both describe a flock or a people driven apart and dispersed, whether sheep broken up by a wolf or a nation carried off into exile.Jhn 10:12Jer 50:17
σκορπίζω stands as the exact opposite of gathering: whoever does not gather with Jesus scatters, so the word frames scattering as the breaking apart of a following.Mat 12:30Luk 11:23
What scholars say about pazar
The standard lexica (BDB; HALOT; DCH) treat פזר as a single root meaning "to scatter, disperse," attested mainly in the piel with a transitive "scatter, spread abroad" force and in the passive stems (niphal, pual, qal passive participle) for what has been scattered. The generous-distribution sense in Ps 112:9 and Prov 11:24, where scattering paradoxically yields increase, is widely recognized as a metaphorical extension of the same root rather than a separate homonym. The verb is comparatively rare (ten occurrences) and largely poetic; the far more frequent synonyms are פוץ and זרה. A related root בזר (Ps 68:30;Dan 11:24), showing the common b/p interchange, carries the same "scatter, distribute" sense and is often regarded as a byform.