StrongerBible

tsav

צַו

HebrewH6673“precept, command, ...”

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Isa 28:10 (4×)Isa 28:13 (4×)Hos 5:11
Root family
Word studyTSAHVnoun

What tsav means

a curt order: a short, clipped command laid on someone, one rule barked out after another

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested

This is a one syllable word that turns up in only three verses of the Hebrew Bible, and it is one of the hardest small words in the prophets. It is built on the ordinary verb for commanding (צָוָה), so the standard Hebrew dictionaries gloss it "command" or "precept." It is not, however, the usual noun for a commandment, which is the fuller and far more common מִצְוָה. This one is short and blunt, an order snapped out rather than a law solemnly given.

Eight of its nine appearances are the same jingle, chanted twice in Isaiah 28: "tsav latsav, tsav latsav, qav laqav, qav laqav," traditionally rendered "precept upon precept, line upon line." In the scene, priests and prophets too drunk to stand complain that Isaiah lectures them as if they were babies just off the breast, and they fling his teaching back at him as a string of clipped syllables paired with the word for a builder's measuring line (קַו). Three verses later God returns the mockery: what they turned into baby talk is what his own word will become for them, a jumble they cannot follow and will trip over.

Scholars are genuinely divided about what those syllables are:

  • the ordinary noun for an order, repeated to picture instruction handed out in tedious scraps
  • mocking nonsense with no dictionary meaning, imitating the way an adult drills a small child
  • the names of two Hebrew letters, as though the officials were sneering that the prophet was running an alphabet lesson

The one appearance outside Isaiah, in Hosea 5:11, is a plainer use: Ephraim was determined to walk after an order, meaning a human decree followed in place of God's own instruction. Even there the Hebrew is contested, since the ancient Greek translators read a different word, one meaning worthless or empty things. Between the taunt in Isaiah and the disputed line in Hosea, this is better treated as a puzzle the prophets set than as a settled term to build on.

Nuances

1aan order handed down to be obeyed, here a human decree a people chose to follow instead of God's own instruction
TranslatabilityApproximate
Hos 5:11
Hos 5:11

Whether the Hebrew text of Hosea 5:11 reads tsav at all. The Masoretic Text has Ephraim determined to walk after tsav, which the lexica take as a command, understood as a human decree followed instead of the LORD's instruction. The Septuagint instead renders with a word for vain or worthless things, which presupposes a Hebrew text reading shav, and many commentators have followed it; other proposals connect the consonants to a word for filth. Because this is the only occurrence of the noun outside the contested Isaiah passage, the decision carries weight for the word as a whole.

  • contestedKeep the Masoretic Text: Ephraim chose to follow an order, that is, a human decree such as the northern kingdom's own royal rulings about worship, rather than what the LORD had commanded.; HALOT, s.v. צַו; A. A. Macintosh, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Hosea (International Critical Commentary; T&T Clark, 1997)
  • contestedRead a word meaning emptiness or worthless things, following the ancient Greek version, so that Ephraim went after worthless idols; a correction long carried in the lexica as a live possibility.; BDB, s.v. צַו; Septuagint, Hosea 5:11
1bin the Isaiah taunt, the clipped chanted syllable of orders drilled out one after another, order on order
TranslatabilityUntranslatableCertaintyObscure
Isa 28:10 (4×)Isa 28:13 (4×)

What scholars say about tsav

The noun is normally derived from the root behind the verb צוה and glossed "command, precept" in BDB, HALOT, and DCH, but it is attested only at Isaiah 28:10, 13 and Hosea 5:11, and every occurrence is disputed. In Isaiah 28 the fourfold tsav latsav / qav laqav has been read three main ways: as real nouns describing instruction handed out in fragments, the reading behind the ancient versions and the traditional English rendering "precept upon precept, line upon line"; as meaningless mimicry, the drunken officials parodying a teacher addressing infants, which is dominant in modern critical commentary (Wildberger, Blenkinsopp) and is often supported by noting that the syllables echo the words for vomit and filth in verse 8; and as the letter names tsade and qoph from a scribal alphabet exercise (Hallo, JBL 1958). Verse 13 reuses the taunt as the sentence pronounced on the mockers, and verse 11, with its stammering lips and foreign tongue, supplies the interpretive key. At Hosea 5:11 the Masoretic tsav is retained by HALOT and defended in the ICC commentary as a human decree, while the Septuagint renders with a word for vain things, presupposing shav and prompting a long standing proposal to correct the text.

Where scholars disagree about tsav

What the repeated syllables of Isaiah 28:10 and 28:13 actually are. The Hebrew reads tsav latsav tsav latsav qav laqav qav laqav, and the question is whether tsav is the ordinary noun for a command, repeated for effect, or a nonsense sound with no lexical value, or the name of a Hebrew letter. Since eight of the word's nine occurrences stand in these two lines, the answer decides whether most of the evidence for the noun is evidence at all.

  • contestedReal nouns: the line describes instruction handed out in tiny fragments, precept upon precept and line upon line, which is how the ancient versions and the traditional English Bibles take it, and which the lexica preserve in glossing the word as a command or precept.; BDB, s.v. צַו; DCH, s.v. צַו
  • majorityMocking nonsense: the syllables are the drunken officials imitating Isaiah as though he were babbling at infants, so they carry no dictionary meaning; this reading is dominant in modern critical commentary and is often supported by observing that the sounds echo the words for vomit and filth in verse 8.; Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 28-39 (Continental Commentaries; Fortress, 2002); Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39 (Anchor Bible 19; Doubleday, 2000)
  • minorityLetter names: tsav and qav are the names of the Hebrew letters tsade and qoph, so the mockers are sneering that the prophet is drilling them in the alphabet like schoolboys, a scenario compared with scribal abecedary exercises.; William W. Hallo, "Isaiah 28:9-13 and the Ugaritic Abecedaries," Journal of Biblical Literature 77 (1958): 324-338

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. צַוlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. צַוlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. צַוlexicon
  • Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 28-39 (Continental Commentaries; Fortress, 2002)commentary
  • Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39 (Anchor Bible 19; Doubleday, 2000)commentary
  • J. J. M. Roberts, First Isaiah (Hermeneia; Fortress, 2015)commentary
  • William W. Hallo, "Isaiah 28:9-13 and the Ugaritic Abecedaries," Journal of Biblical Literature 77 (1958): 324-338article
  • A. A. Macintosh, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Hosea (International Critical Commentary; T&T Clark, 1997)commentary

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

All attested forms of צַו

m s absolute

צָו, צַו

Isa 28:10, Isa 28:10, Isa 28:13, Isa 28:13, Hos 5:11, Isa 28:10, Isa 28:10, Isa 28:13