StrongerBible

tsuph

צוּף

HebrewH6687“flow over, overflow, ...”

Appears 3 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Deu 11:42Ki 6:6Lam 3:54
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeTSOOFverb

What tsuph means

to flow over something, or to bring something up so that it rides on the surface of the water

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

All three appearances of this verb have water in view, and all three are about what ends up on top.

  • The sea is made to run over Pharaoh's chariots as they chase Israel (Deuteronomy 11:4).
  • Water closes over the head of a man who believes he is finished (Lamentations 3:54).
  • A borrowed iron axe head, sunk in the Jordan, is brought back up to ride on the surface (2 Kings 6:6).

What holds these together is the line where water meets whatever it covers. In the first two the water crosses that line and stands above its victim, so the word means engulfing, drowning, being overwhelmed. In the third the movement runs the other way: something heavy comes up through the water and stays on top of it. The word names the result rather than the direction, which is why English needs two different pictures to carry it.

The reversal in the Elisha story is worth noticing. The verb used when God drowns an army at the sea is the same one used when a prophet brings a poor student's borrowed tool back up out of the riverbed. Hebrew has a common verb for water that sweeps things away (שָׁטַף), used dozens of times; this one is rare enough that each of its three uses stands out on its own.

A noun spelled exactly the same way (צוּף) means a honeycomb, or the honey that drips from one. Older lexicons explained that noun as the thing honey "flows" out of and so traced it back to this verb, but the connection is an old suggestion rather than a settled fact, and none of these three verses has anything to do with honey.

Nuances

1awater flowing over something and covering it, whether the water rises on its own or is sent to drown an enemy
TranslatabilityApproximate
Deu 11:4Lam 3:54
1bto bring a heavy object up out of the water so that it rides on the surface
TranslatabilityApproximate
2Ki 6:6

What scholars say about tsuph

BDB gives a single verbal entry glossed "flow, overflow, [float]": Qal in Lamentations 3:54 (צָפוּ־מַיִם), Hiphil "cause to flow over" in Deuteronomy 11:4 (הֵצִיף) and "cause to float" in 2 Kings 6:6 (וַיָּצֶף). DCH, which excludes comparative etymology on principle, defines the verb from its attested use and does not assert the traditional derivation of the honeycomb noun from it. The comparative material for a single root is uneven: the Aramaic and Syriac cognate cited for "float, overflow" is spelled with ṭet (טוּף) and the Arabic word usually offered (ṭāfa) with ṭāʾ, neither of which regularly corresponds to Hebrew ṣade, and no Akkadian ṣ-root is securely attested with the sense "float" (CAD Ṣ and AHw gloss ṣapû "to soak, drench" and, in later dialects, "to dye"); a Ugaritic cognate remains unconfirmed. On the individual verses, Weinfeld and Tigay treat Deuteronomy 11:4 as unproblematic "engulf, overwhelm" and locate the interest in the theology of the remembered Exodus; Hillers and Dobbs-Allsopp read Lamentations 3:54 within the watery-death and Pit imagery of the individual lament (compare Psalm 69:1-2 and Jonah 2), while allowing the surrounding cistern language a literal reading as well; Cogan and Tadmor take 2 Kings 6:6 as the axe head made to float, against rationalizing renderings ("caused it to come up") and the Peshitta's expansion in which the stick catches the iron, and the commentary tradition notes that the verb which drowns Egypt is here inverted to lift iron up. The Greek translators had no fixed equivalent, using a flood verb at Deuteronomy 11:4, ὑπερεχύθη at Lamentations 3:54 and ἐπεπόλασεν ("came to the surface") at 4 Kingdoms 6:6, while Jerome renders with inundaverunt ("flooded") and natavit ("swam"). A possible fourth occurrence at Ezekiel 32:6 is parsed under this root only tentatively and is not secure. BDB notes that the verb continues in later Hebrew in the same sense, so it was uncommon rather than moribund.

Where scholars disagree about tsuph

Whether the noun for honeycomb, spelled with the same letters as this verb, is formed from it (the comb being named for the honey that flows out of it) or is an unrelated word that merely looks identical.

  • majorityThe honeycomb noun is derived from this verb: the comb is named as the thing that exudes and drips honey.; Brown-Driver-Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. I. צוּף (noun): "(honey-)comb (as exuding honey)"; Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, s.v. צוף; C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Proverbs, on Proverbs 16:24
  • minorityThe derivation is an assumption rather than a demonstrated fact, so the noun should be defined from its attested use and not traced to this verb; the words offered as cognates in Aramaic and Arabic are spelled with a consonant that does not regularly match the Hebrew one, which weakens the case for a single root.; David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, s.v. צוף
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

  • Brown-Driver-Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, s.v. צוּף (verb)lexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, s.v. צוףlexicon
  • The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD), Ṣ, s.v. ṣapûlexicon
  • Wolfram von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, s.v. ṣapûlexicon
  • Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11 (Anchor Bible 5), on Deuteronomy 11:4commentary
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy (JPS Torah Commentary), on Deuteronomy 11:4commentary
  • Delbert R. Hillers, Lamentations (Anchor Bible 7A), on Lamentations 3:52-54commentary
  • F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp, Lamentations (Interpretation), on Lamentations 3:52-54commentary
  • Mordechai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor, II Kings (Anchor Bible 11), on 2 Kings 6:6commentary

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

All attested forms of צוּף

hiphil consecutive-imperfect 3ms

וַיָּצֶף

2Ki 6:6

hiphil perfect 3ms

הֵצִיף

Deu 11:4

qal perfect 3cp

צָפוּ

Lam 3:54