a large shield: the tall, body-length shield a soldier crouched behind in battle
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This is the big shield of the ancient battlefield, the one that covered the whole body from head to foot. It was so large that a heavily armed fighter often had a shield-bearer walk ahead of him carrying it, as Goliath did. The gold versions Solomon and Rehoboam hung in the palace were showpieces of exactly this size. It differs from the smaller round shield or buckler (מָגֵן), which a soldier held on one arm, and the two words are often named together to cover a whole armory.
The same object also becomes one of the Bible's favorite pictures of safety. In the Psalms God himself is called this shield: his favor surrounds a person the way a great shield surrounds the one who hides behind it, and his faithfulness is armor a believer can trust in danger. The literal battlefield sense and the figure of divine protection are the same word doing double duty, the concrete image lending its weight to the promise.
Nuances
1athe large war shield: the body-length shield carried into battle
1ba picture of God's protection: the LORD or his faithfulness as a covering shield
Psa 5:12(13)Psa 35:2Psa 91:4
2
a hook or barb: a pointed implement for dragging captives away
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested
This meaning appears only once, in a threat of exile where the people are warned they will be hauled off like caught fish. It stands beside a matching word for fishhooks in the same line, which is why most readers take it as some kind of hook or barb used to drag prisoners along. It is a separate word from the shield, sharing only its spelling.
Amo 4:2*
Amo 4:2
What the plural term denotes in Amos 4:2 and how the captives are pictured being led away.
majorityIt means hooks or barbs, so that the exiles are dragged off like fish on a line, matching the fishhooks named in the parallel phrase.; HALOT, s.v. צִנָּה II; Shalom M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia)
minorityThe precise implement is uncertain; the rare parallel words have also supported readings such as thorns or baskets for hauling the captives away.; Francis I. Andersen and David Noel Freedman, Amos (Anchor Bible 24A)
3
coolness: the refreshing chill of cold, as of snow
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
This word turns up once, in a proverb praising a trustworthy messenger as being "like the coolness of snow in the time of harvest." Harvest fell in the heat of summer, so the image is of a sudden, welcome chill that revives the one who sends him. It comes from a separate root about being cold and has nothing to do with either the shield or the hook.
This is the large, body-length shield, big enough that a warrior went ahead of a champion carrying it for him, as Goliath's shield-bearer did.1Sa 17:71Sa 17:41
Both
Both name a real piece of battle gear, and both turn up together in lists of an army's weapons and the equipment stockpiled in arsenals.2Ch 14:8Jer 46:3
Both can stand for God's protection of his people, the worshiper sheltered behind a shield that God himself holds up.Psa 84:9Psa 5:12Psa 91:4
This is the shield the poets reach for when they call God their protector. Again and again the Psalms and wisdom books name God himself with this word, picturing a defense held close around the worshiper.Gen 15:1Psa 3:3Psa 18:2Psa 84:11Pro 30:5
It names the lighter, smaller shield prized for show as much as war: the gold ceremonial shields Solomon hung in the House of the Forest of Lebanon are this word.1Ki 10:172Ch 9:16
This is the shield a man actually fights behind, and it is so tall and heavy that a champion has another man walk ahead of him carrying it. The other word never names anything a fighter holds up in a battle line.1Sa 17:71Sa 17:41Ezk 38:4
It is the standard issue counted by the thousand when an army is mustered or a kingdom is fortified, so it measures how many men can be put in the field.1Ch 12:241Ch 12:342Ch 11:122Ch 25:5
It is expendable working equipment: it can be set up against a city under siege, and after the fighting the leftover gear is fit for nothing better than firewood.Ezk 26:8Ezk 39:9
Because it is the thing that covers a man completely, it becomes a favorite picture of God's own protection in prayer, where his favor and his faithfulness are what shields the person praying.Psa 5:12Psa 35:2Psa 91:4
The same spelling does double duty for things that have nothing to do with war, once for the chill of snow in harvest time and once for the hooks that drag captives away.Pro 25:13Amo 4:2
Both
Both name gear valuable enough to be made or covered in gold and kept as a royal showpiece, Solomon making two hundred of the big shields and David carrying home the gold pieces stripped from a defeated king's servants.1Ki 10:162Ch 9:152Sa 8:71Ch 18:7
Both belong to the same short list of what a fighting force is equipped with, named in one breath with spears when troops are armed or a kingdom is stocked for war.2Ch 11:122Ch 23:92Ki 11:10
It names stored royal property rather than gear a soldier keeps: David's own pieces sit in the house of God for generations until a priest brings them out to arm the guard for one occasion.2Ki 11:102Ch 23:9
These are hung up in rows on a tower or along a city wall as ornament, so that the building itself shows off the strength of the men behind it.Sng 4:4Ezk 27:11
What the object actually was is still argued over, because one command is to sharpen the arrows and fill these things, and nothing that is filled is likely to be a shield. Some English Bibles print "quivers" here and others print "shields."Jer 51:11
It never appears alone: every occurrence is a set of them belonging to a group of elite fighters or to a king's servants, never one piece in one man's hand.2Sa 8:71Ch 18:7Sng 4:4
tsinnah in the other biblical languages
θυρεόςGreek“long shield”the Greek word for the tall, door-shaped shield, which Paul turns into the "shield of faith"
צנה stays mostly a concrete piece of war gear: the heavy full-length shield carried ahead of a warrior by his shield-bearer, issued to troops, and stored by the hundreds in royal armories and treasuries.2Ch 11:121Ki 10:16Ezk 23:24
It also becomes a picture of God's own protection, the favor and faithfulness that wrap around his people like a great shield covering them on every side.Psa 5:12Psa 91:4
Both
Both name the large, full-body shield that stands between the whole warrior and the enemy, the tall covering shield rather than a small hand-held buckler.1Sa 17:7Eph 6:16
θυρεός takes its name from the word for a door and so pictures a shield as tall and wide as a doorway, hiding the whole soldier behind it; its one New Testament use is the figure of the "shield of faith" that quenches the enemy's flaming arrows, never a literal weapon.Eph 6:16
What scholars say about tsinnah
The lexica distinguish three homonyms written צִנָּה: (I) the large shield, the body-covering scutum-type shield regularly paired with and contrasted to the smaller מָגֵן; (II) a hook or barb, attested only at Amos 4:2 alongside the obscure סִירוֹת דּוּגָה; and (III) coolness, from the root צנן, only at Proverbs 25:13. HALOT and BDB treat these as separate entries rather than one polysemous root. The Septuagint typically renders the shield with θυρεός, the term Ephesians 6:16 uses for the shield of faith. Amos 4:2 is a recognized crux: HALOT and Paul (Hermeneia) read barbs or fishhooks in parallel with the following term, while Andersen and Freedman (Anchor Bible) stress the uncertainty of both rare words.
Sources
HALOT, s.v. צִנָּה I, II, IIIlexicon
BDB, s.v. צִנָּהlexicon
Shalom M. Paul, Amos (Hermeneia)commentary
Francis I. Andersen and David Noel Freedman, Amos (Anchor Bible 24A)commentary