StrongerBible

se'et

שְׂאֵת

HebrewH7613“swelling, dignity, ...”

Appears 14 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 4:7Gen 49:3Lev 13:2Lev 13:10 (2×)Lev 13:19Lev 13:28Lev 13:43Lev 14:56Job 13:11Job 31:23Job 41:25(17)Psa 62:4(5)Hab 1:7
Word studyResearch-gradeseh-AYTnoun

What se'et means

a being lifted up: depending on context, a raised mark on the skin, or raised rank and majesty

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is a rare noun, used only fourteen times, built from the common verb meaning to lift, carry, or raise. Every one of its uses is the same picture applied to a different setting: something is raised up. On the skin it names a raised or marked spot the priest must inspect. In poetry it names raised rank, the dignity and high standing a person holds. Of God it names overwhelming majesty, the sheer height of who He is. In one vivid line it describes a sea creature rearing up out of the water.

Because the senses all grow from one image, the standard lexicons treat this as a single word with several specializations rather than as unrelated words that happen to look alike. The reader should hear the same underlying idea each time: elevation. What changes is what is being lifted, a patch of skin, a firstborn's honor, a conqueror's power, or the towering greatness of God.

The word also carries a quiet warning that runs through these texts. The very same elevation that is right and good in God can be claimed wrongly by a proud conqueror, forfeited by a firstborn who disgraces himself, or threatened by enemies who scheme to topple a king. Being lifted up, in the Hebrew Bible, is a precarious thing: secure when it rests on God, dangerous when a person grasps it for himself.

Nuances

1aa raised or abnormal mark on the skin: the priest's diagnostic term for a spot to be examined
Lev 13:2Lev 13:10 (2×)Lev 13:19Lev 13:28Lev 13:43Lev 14:56
1braised rank, dignity, or eminence: the high standing a person holds
Gen 4:7Gen 49:3Psa 62:4(5)Hab 1:7
1coverwhelming majesty: the towering, dread-inspiring greatness of God
Job 13:11Job 31:23
1da rising up: the rearing motion of a creature lifting itself
CertaintyContested
Job 41:25(17)

Disputed

How to translate the word in the skin-disease laws of Leviticus 13 and 14: a swelling that protrudes, or a flat discolored patch.

  • majorityA swelling or raised place on the skin, fitting the root sense of being lifted up; the traditional rendering.; Wenham, Leviticus (NICOT, 1979), pp. 195-98; Hartley, Leviticus (WBC, 1992), pp. 187-89
  • minorityA discoloration rather than a swelling, since the priestly text describes the lesion as deeper and lower than the surrounding skin (Lev 13:3, 13:20), which a protruding swelling could not be.; Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (AB, 1991), p. 773; Levine, Leviticus (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989), pp. 76-77

What scholars say about se'et

שְׂאֵת is the feminine infinitive construct of נשׂא functioning as a noun, with the I-nun assimilated and the III-aleph quiescing to yield serê (so historic *naśʾat > śĕʾēt; the contracted spelling שֵׂתוֹ at Job 41:17 [Eng 25] shows it was felt as a true noun). BDB, HALOT, DCH, Gesenius-Tregelles, and Ges18 keep it a single polysemous lemma under נשׂא glossed "being lifted up, dignity, majesty," with the dermatological "swelling" as a concrete specialization (HALOT's occasional "II שְׂאֵת" is a lexicographer's convenience, not a homonym claim). The comparative Semitic data (Akkadian našû and the abstract nīšu, Ugaritic nšʾ, Aramaic נשׂא, Geʿez naśʾa, Arabic našaʾa) confirm a single vertical-motion root underlying all the senses. The honorific sense (Gen 49:3 "preeminent in rank," Job 13:11 and 31:23 of God's majesty, Hab 1:7 of self-grounded Chaldean sovereignty, Ps 62:5 [Eng 4] of a king's vulnerable eminence) is secured by parallelism, e.g. with עָז in Gen 49:3. Job 41:17 [Eng 25] reads it as an action-noun, Leviathan's "rising up." Two live disputes: in Lev 13-14, Milgrom (AB) and Levine (JPS), citing the lesion described as deeper (עָמֹק, 13:3) and lower (שָׁפָל, 13:20) than the skin, render "discoloration" against the traditional "swelling" defended by Wenham, Hartley, Gane, and Rooker; and in Gen 4:7, where the noun has no expressed subject or object, the dominant reading takes שְׂאֵת as elliptical for נשׂא פנים (lifting of the face = acceptance: Westermann, Wenham, Hamilton, Mathews, Sarna, Skinner, Waltke, Gunkel), against Speiser's "exaltation" (AB), the Targumic and Rashi "forgiveness," Calvin's imperative "bear your sin," and a sin-offering minority (Morales, Burnett) that mainline scholars reject as anachronistic.

Where scholars disagree about se'et

What the word means in God's words to Cain in Genesis 4:7, where it has no stated subject or object and the line is extremely compressed.

  • majorityA lifting of the face, that is, acceptance and restored standing, since Cain's face had just fallen in the preceding verses; the dominant modern reading.; Westermann, Genesis 1-11 (CC, ET 1984), p. 299; Wenham, Genesis 1-15 (WBC, 1987), pp. 104-06; Hamilton, Genesis 1-17 (NICOT, 1990), pp. 226-27
  • minorityExaltation or dignity, the same honor Cain as firstborn stands to retain or lose, as in Genesis 49:3.; Speiser, Genesis (AB, 1964), p. 33
  • minorityThe bearing or forgiveness of sin, reading the word as shorthand for bearing iniquity; preserved in the ancient Aramaic paraphrases and followed by Rashi.; Targum Onkelos ad loc.
  • minorityPart of a sacrificial or sin-offering reading of the verse, a textually suggestive minority that mainline scholars reject as importing later priestly vocabulary into Genesis.; Morales, Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? (NSBT 37, IVP Academic, 2015); Burnett, 'A Sin Offering Lying in the Doorway?,' Master's Seminary Journal 27/1 (2016): 45-55
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

  • BDB, p. 673, s.v. שְׂאֵת (under נשׂא)lexicon
  • HALOT, vol. 3, s.v. שְׂאֵתlexicon
  • DCH (Clines), s.v. שְׂאֵתlexicon
  • Wenham, Genesis 16-50 (WBC, 1994), p. 471commentary
  • Speiser, Genesis (AB, 1964), pp. 33, 363-65commentary
  • Westermann, Genesis 1-11 (CC, ET 1984), p. 299; Genesis 37-50 (CC, 1986), pp. 222-24commentary
  • Hamilton, Genesis 1-17 (NICOT, 1990), pp. 226-27; Genesis 18-50 (NICOT, 1995), pp. 645-46commentary
  • Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16 (AB, 1991), p. 773commentary
  • Levine, Leviticus (JPS Torah Commentary, 1989), pp. 76-77commentary
  • Hartley, Leviticus (WBC, 1992), pp. 187-89; Job (NICOT, 1988), pp. 220-21commentary
  • Clines, Job 1-20 (WBC, 1989), pp. 281, 311-12; Job 38-42 (WBC, 2011), pp. 1170, 1190-95commentary
  • Andersen, Habakkuk (AB, 2001), pp. 138, 146-47commentary
  • Lohr, 'Righteous Abel, Wicked Cain,' CBQ 71 (2009): 485-96article
  • Sipila and van der Spuy, 'To Lift Up, but by Whom and What? A Note on Genesis 4.7a,' The Bible Translator 63.4 (2012): 192-96article

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

All attested forms of שְׂאֵת

f s absolute

שְׂאֵת

Gen 4:7, Gen 49:3, Lev 13:2, Lev 13:10, Lev 13:10, Lev 13:19, Lev 14:56

f s construct

שְׂאֵתוֹ, שְּׂאֵתוֹ, שֵּׂתוֹ

Job 13:11, Hab 1:7, Job 31:23, Psa 62:4, Job 41:25

f s construct

שְׂאֵת

Lev 13:28, Lev 13:43