StrongerBible

si'aḥ

שִׂיחַ

HebrewH7879“complaint, meditation, ...”

Appears 14 times · tap a cell to see the verses

1Sa 1:161Ki 18:272Ki 9:11Job 7:13Job 9:27Job 10:1Job 21:4Job 23:2Psa 55:2(3)Psa 64:1(2)Psa 102:0(1)Psa 104:34Psa 142:2(3)Pro 23:29
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradeSEE-akhnoun

What si'aḥ means

the words a full heart pours out: most often a complaint, sometimes a matter someone keeps going over aloud

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the noun that belongs to the verb for voicing what is on your mind (שׂיח), and it names the thing voiced rather than the act of voicing it. In almost every occurrence that thing is a grievance: trouble a sufferer has been turning over inside until it finally comes out in words. It is never silent thought. Biblical Hebrew has other ways to speak of thinking quietly; this word keeps one foot in the mouth.

The verb it usually travels with is "pour out." The heading of Psalm 102 introduces a stricken man who pours out his complaint before the Lord, and Psalm 142:2 says the same thing in the first person. That pairing is the clue to the word: not a tidy petition but the whole pressurized contents of a heart, tipped out. It is why Hannah can excuse herself in 1 Samuel 1:16 by saying she has been speaking out of the sheer volume of it, and why Job can call his bitter in Job 23:2.

The same noun stretches in three directions, and what changes most is who is listening:

  • the sufferer's own outpouring, addressed to God, in Job and the psalms of lament
  • that speech overheard from outside and brushed off, as when Jehu's officers are told they know the man and the sort of talk he makes (2 Kings 9:11), or when a proverb lists endless grumbling among the marks of a man who has been drinking (Proverbs 23:29)
  • a glad going-over of what God has done, in Psalm 104:34, which the psalmist hopes God will find sweet

One use stands apart. In 1 Kings 18:27 Elijah taunts the prophets of Baal by suggesting their god is occupied with something, and much recent work reads the jab as crude rather than pious, a joke about relieving oneself rather than about talking or thinking at all. Note too that a completely separate word is spelled the same way and means a bush of the open country (שׂיח); the two share nothing but their spelling.

Nuances

1aa complaint poured out: the grievance a suffering person puts into words, most often before God
TranslatabilityApproximate
1Sa 1:16Job 7:13Job 9:27Job 10:1Job 21:4Job 23:2Psa 55:2(3)Psa 64:1(2)Psa 102:0(1)Psa 142:2(3)
1bsomeone's talk as other people hear it: a rant, or grumbling that goes on and on
2Ki 9:11Pro 23:29
1ca glad going-over of what God has done, said out loud
Psa 104:34
1din Elijah's taunt, whatever Baal is supposedly taken up with
CertaintyContested
1Ki 18:27
1Ki 18:27

Whether שִׂיחַ in Elijah's taunt at 1 Kings 18:27 carries its ordinary sense of talk or musing, or is a euphemism (paired with שִׂיג) for relieving oneself.

  • majorityThe two nouns are paired euphemisms for relieving oneself, so Elijah's taunt is deliberately coarse mockery of Baal's dignity; the verse therefore does not belong to the semantic field of this noun at all.; G. R. Driver, in Melanges bibliques rediges en l'honneur de Andre Robert (1957); Rendsburg, "The Mock of Baal in 1 Kings 18:27," CBQ 50 (1988): 414-17; Cogan, I Kings, Anchor Bible 10; Sweeney, I and II Kings, Old Testament Library
  • minorityThe noun keeps its ordinary sense, so Elijah suggests Baal is preoccupied with talk or thought and simply cannot attend to his prophets.; DeVries, 1 Kings, Word Biblical Commentary 12; BDB, s.v. שיח

Disputed

What kind of complaint Job's שִׂיחַ is (Job 7:13; 9:27; 10:1; 21:4; 23:2).

  • contestedForensic-legal speech: Job's formal filing of grievance, the brief in his imagined lawsuit against God.; Clines, Job 1-20, Word Biblical Commentary 17; Habel, The Book of Job, Old Testament Library
  • contestedLament as meditation: sustained rumination pressed until it curdles into protest, which the purely forensic reading does not exhaust.; Seow, Job 1-21, Illuminations; Newsom, The Book of Job: A Contest of Moral Imaginations

What scholars say about si'aḥ

Every major modern lexicon (HALOT, BDB, Clines's DCH vol. 8, Gesenius 18) lists two homonymous nouns: שִׂיחַ I "musing, complaint, talk" and שִׂיחַ II "shrub, bush" (Gen 2:5; 21:15; Job 30:4, 7). BDB marks senses 2 to 4 of noun I as dubious. The older unifying etymology, going back to Gesenius's Handwoerterbuch and preserved in Klein and in TWOT #2255, derived both nouns from a primitive sense "to put forth" (shoots from a plant, words from the mouth), but comparative Semitists now favor two roots: the plant noun has secure and specific cognates (Akkadian sihu, Syriac shiha, Arabic shih, all Artemisia), while the speech word is close to an isolate with real support only in Aramaic and Syriac. James Barr's methodological caution in Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament against collapsing homonyms on the basis of speculative primary meanings governs the field's current preference. The noun's distribution is heavily weighted toward lament: ten of its fourteen occurrences are a sufferer's poured-out grievance, characteristically with שָׁפַךְ (heading of Ps 102; Ps 142:2), which Hossfeld and Zenger treat as a genre-marker of individual lament. In Job the noun occurrences cluster on "complaint," but its character is disputed: Clines (WBC 17) and Habel (OTL) read forensic-legal speech, Job's brief in his imagined suit against God, while Seow (Illuminations) and Newsom resist the too-clean forensic reading and describe rumination pressed until it becomes protest. Psalms and orality scholarship (Kraus; Goldingay; Alter; Niditch; Schniedewind) has meanwhile moved decisively against reading this field as silent contemplation: like הָגָה, שִׂיחַ denotes audible or sub-vocal rehearsal, in a culture where reading was done aloud. The one genuinely uncertain occurrence is 1 Kgs 18:27, where G. R. Driver and Rendsburg (CBQ 50 [1988]: 414-17) argued from Arabic and Ugaritic evidence that שִׂיחַ and שִׂיג are paired euphemisms for relieving oneself, a reading endorsed or noted by Cogan (AB 10), Sweeney (OTL), and Provan (NIBC) and adopted in most current academic study Bibles, against DeVries (WBC 12), who retains "meditating" while flagging the euphemism.

Where scholars disagree about si'aḥ

Whether the noun שִׂיחַ "musing, complaint" and the identically spelled שִׂיחַ "shrub, bush" go back to one root or are unrelated homonyms.

  • majorityTwo unrelated words that share a spelling: the plant noun is an inherited Semitic name for wormwood with secure Akkadian, Syriac, and Arabic cognates, while the speech word is nearly an isolate supported mainly from Aramaic and Syriac.; HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. שיח I and II; BDB, s.v. שיח I and II; Clines, The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 8; Gesenius, Hebraeisches und Aramaeisches Handwoerterbuch ueber das Alte Testament, 18. Auflage
  • minorityOne original root meaning "to put forth," yielding both shoots put forth by a plant and words put forth from the mouth.; Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language; Cohen, TWOT #2255
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

  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. שיח Ilexicon
  • BDB, s.v. שיחlexicon
  • Clines, The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 8lexicon
  • Gesenius, Hebraeisches und Aramaeisches Handwoerterbuch ueber das Alte Testament, 18. Auflagelexicon
  • TDOT (Botterweck-Ringgren), s.v. שיח, vol. XIVtheological-dictionary
  • Cohen, TWOT #2255theological-dictionary
  • VanGemeren, ed., NIDOTTE, s.v. שיחtheological-dictionary
  • Barr, Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testamentmonograph
  • Clines, Job 1-20, Word Biblical Commentary 17commentary
  • Habel, The Book of Job, Old Testament Librarycommentary
  • Seow, Job 1-21, Illuminationscommentary
  • Newsom, The Book of Job: A Contest of Moral Imaginationsmonograph
  • Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, Hermeneiacommentary
  • Goldingay, Psalms, Baker Commentary on the Old Testamentcommentary
  • Alter, The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentarycommentary
  • Cogan, I Kings, Anchor Bible 10commentary
  • Sweeney, I and II Kings, Old Testament Librarycommentary
  • DeVries, 1 Kings, Word Biblical Commentary 12commentary
  • Rendsburg, "The Mock of Baal in 1 Kings 18:27," CBQ 50 (1988): 414-17journal-article
  • Niditch, Oral World and Written Wordmonograph

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

All attested forms of שִׂיחַ

m s construct

שִׂיחִי, שִׂחִי

1Sa 1:16, Job 7:13, Job 9:27, Job 10:1, Job 21:4, Psa 55:2, Psa 64:1, Psa 104:34

m s absolute

שִׂיחַ

1Ki 18:27, Pro 23:29

m s construct

שִׂיחוֹ

2Ki 9:11, Psa 102:0