StrongerBible

tsava

צָבָא

HebrewH6633wage war, serve, ...

Appears 14 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 38:8 (2×)Num 4:23Num 8:24Num 31:7Num 31:421Sa 2:222Ki 25:19Isa 29:7 (2×)Isa 29:8Isa 31:4Jer 52:25Zec 14:12
Root family
Word studytsah-VAHverb

What tsava means

to serve in a mustered company: to march out to war, or to take a turn of organized duty at the sanctuary

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

At its heart this verb pictures people gathered into an organized company and set to a shared task. It is the action behind the noun for a "host" or "army," and it always carries that sense of a body of people mustered and put to work together, never a lone individual acting on his own.

Two of its directions look opposite in English but are one idea in Hebrew. One is going out to war, close to the ordinary verb for doing battle (לחם) but picturing a mustered host on the march. The other is sanctuary service: the men who took their turn of duty at the tent of meeting, and the women who served at its entrance. Unlike the general verb for serving or laboring (עבד), this word frames that duty as an ordered company keeping a fixed term, which is why Scripture can describe the tent's workers with the same word it uses for troops.

A causative use adds a third angle: to muster others, to call up the people of the land for war. Here the subject does not serve but puts others into service.

Because no single English word spans both the battlefield and the sanctuary, translations reach for different words in each setting ("fight," "serve," "muster"), which quietly hides the one picture underneath: an ordered company answering a call to duty.

Nuances

1ato wage war, to march out to battle as a mustered force
TranslatabilityDirect
Num 31:7Num 31:42Isa 29:7 (2×)Isa 29:8Isa 31:4Zec 14:12
1bto render organized service at the sanctuary, keeping a term of duty
TranslatabilityApproximate
Exo 38:8 (2×)Num 4:23Num 8:241Sa 2:22
1cto muster, to call others up for war
TranslatabilityDirect
2Ki 25:19Jer 52:25

What scholars say about tsava

Standard lexica (BDB; HALOT, s.v. צבא I) treat צָבָא as a single verbal root, denominative from the noun צָבָא "host, army, service," meaning to wage war and, by extension, to render organized service. The Qal covers both the martial sense (Numbers 31:7; Isaiah 29:7-8; 31:4; Zechariah 14:12) and the cultic sense of serving at the sanctuary (Numbers 4:23; 8:24), with the feminine participle used of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting (Exodus 38:8; 1 Samuel 2:22). The Hiphil is causative, to muster or enroll for war (2 Kings 25:19, paralleled verbatim in Jeremiah 52:25). TDOT and TWOT observe that one term thus unites Israel's military and liturgical organization, both conceived as ordered companies serving under a fixed term of duty. The precise nature of the women's service in Exodus 38:8 and 1 Samuel 2:22 remains discussed, proposals ranging from menial tabernacle labor to a recognized ministering role at the sanctuary entrance.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. צָבָאlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. צבא Ilexicon
  • TWOT, §1865 'צָבָא'theological-dictionary
  • TDOT, s.v. צָבָאtheological-dictionary

All attested forms of צָבָא

qal infinitive-construct construct

צְבֹא, צְבֹּא

Num 4:23, Num 8:24, Isa 31:4

qal participle m p absolute

צֹּבְאִים

Num 31:42, Isa 29:7, Isa 29:8

hiphil participle m s absolute

מַּצְבִּא

2Ki 25:19, Jer 52:25

qal participle f p absolute

צֹּבְאוֹת, צֹּבְאֹת

1Sa 2:22, Exo 38:8

qal perfect 3cp

צָבְאוּ

Exo 38:8, Zec 14:12

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

וַיִּצְבְּאוּ

Num 31:7

qal participle m p construct

צֹבֶי

Isa 29:7